I wonder if it would have survived into the modern era, like many [0] of the compression-arch Roman bridges have. I imagine engineering history could have gone very differently, with such a crazy artifact standing as a proof-of-concept, inciting even bolder ideas. (What's the da Vinci version of steampunk called?)<p>[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_bridges" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_bridges</a><p>Apparently there's a lot of other attempts (beside OP's) to build scaled versions of this bridge. (The article mentions a steel footpath bridge in Norway). Here's one I think is particularly interesting: a reasonably faithful replica at the 100-meter scale, built of pykrete [1] (sawdust-reinforced water-ice composite).<p><a href="https://www.cursor.tue.nl/en/news/2015/april/tue-team-to-build-da-vinci-bridge-with-a-span-of-50-meters/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cursor.tue.nl/en/news/2015/april/tue-team-to-bui...</a><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/BridgeInIce/videos" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/c/BridgeInIce/videos</a><p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pykrete</a><p>I can't find a good post-mortem article, but it looks like it collapsed during construction and was abandoned. (?)
I'm a bit shocked that in 2021, students rely on physically building the bridge and simulating earthquakes with moving platforms. This feels like dummy engineering.<p>I would have expected a mechanical engineer to actually be able to prove or disprove the feasibility through math, and create a CAD model on which to apply forces simulating earthquakes, heatwaves, etc.
You can take one fast look at the design and see where the biggest problem is going to be: the lateral (spreading) forces against the ends of the bridge will require some clever anchor or ground lock of sorts, otherwise the ends will just shove apart and the middle will collapse.<p>Notice in the modern model, they have the ends not only anchored, but actually blocked within boundaries that prevent spreading.<p>Other bridges have used a similar design, but they had much more of a vertical component. Then the forces at the ground were more perpendicular to the earth plane, so gravity and mass of the stones (and friction of the stones against the earth) could better prevent separation.
It not only works, but is among the most beautiful structures I've seen. Someone should really build that.<p>It also once again makes me consider the idea that da Vinci was a time travelling physicist having the time of his life.
They created one in Norway with that design I think?<p><a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Vinci-broen" rel="nofollow">https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Vinci-broen</a>
The headline made me think it was a different bridge of Leonardo's. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-design-for-a-temporary-bridge-suggested-by-Leonardo-da-Vinci_fig10_225146302" rel="nofollow">https://www.researchgate.net/figure/A-design-for-a-temporary...</a>