Building Bridges

Wood is terrific for making things ... like 2x4s and fishing poles.  (Ok, I know bamboo is actually a grass ;-)

The Kinsol Trestle.  Completed in 1920, it's 125 feet high and 614 feet long ... and one of the highest wood trestles in the word.

- photo by George Klein

But awesome as wood is, it's no longer the best choice for building bridges. Compared to steel, wood has some significant structural limitations.  Even so, early steel bridges were uninspired and drew heavily from familiar designs;  surely their construction appeared flimsy, dangerous and suspicious to the wood-loving public.

- The Georgetown Loop, Colorado

It took some serious thinking outside the box to unlock the new technology's potential, before we began seeing steel bridges like this:

The Millau Viaduct, France

Can you imagine building the Millau Viaduct using wood planks, nails and timbers?

A modern parallel to the evolution of bridge engineering is the church web campus: what radical thinking and ground-breaking design will be required to unlock the new technology, and create an internet virtual bridge connecting the entire world to the Gospel?