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Bridge Building
in 1882
The Tapp’s Ford Bridge is a good example of the ingenuity of America’s early engineers and businessmen. Iron bridges were the “in thing” when the railroad mania hit the United States in the mid-1800s. Wooden bridges could not handle locomotives weighing 30 or more tons; and sparks could ignite a covered bridge. In addition, wrought iron could bend, even doubling back on itself, and stretch by up to 30% before becoming permanently deformed. It was the ideal material until steel became widely available toward the end of the 1800s - steel is just wrought iron on steroids.
One advantage wooden bridges had, though, was the raw material, wood. It was almost always close by, so builders had no transportation problem. Cut down some trees and build the bridge right there at the river. But the raw materials used in fabricating an iron bridge, coal and iron deposits, caused businessmen to build their bridge companies near these deposits. This again minimized the builder’s transportation problem. Their philosophy was: build the bridge, take it apart, and let the buyer pay the shipping to where it was going to be useJ. The “take it apart” idea was ingenious.
Old wrought iron bridges were made up of a large number of relatively small pieces so they coula be easily fabricated, handled, .' hipped, hefted into place, adjusted, tightened up, and, if necessary, taken apart for use elsewhere. The Tapp’s Ford Bridge is a good example of this. It is put together with nuts, bolts, washers, pins, tumbuck
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