Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations DIY bridge - slightly OT

I thought some members may be interested in this project. I needed a foot bridge to span a stream on my property. I got quotes from contractors and prefab bridge makers and the it was more than I wanted to spend. Instead I opted to build it myself (much to my wife's dismay ) The bridge is 37' long and 6 ' wide. It is made entirely out of standard 2x6 lumber. The design is supposed to more than 3000 lbs (I don't think I am going to test that). I built it in the garage and used the help of 5 friends to install it. No heavy machinery was needed. I would be happy to provide more info to anyone interested.

Here are some pics of the assembly. You will notice the railings are not finished yet. Yes that is the dam of my pond in the background.

Jayman,

Very Nice!
I'm having difficulty counting the 2X6's; could you please provide that number?

Thanks,

Ed

Neat and very sturdy looking!

Hopefully it will last a long time, we had one over the watershed area of our pond that was built with telelpone poles and it got washed into the pond during a deluge once.

A lot!. Each arch is basically 10 2x6x16' boards. Every arch member you see is sistered to another. There is also some wood (long triangles) on top of the arches to provide a flat surface for the decking. I cannot remember how many of those were needed.

Yes, this bridge replaces a covered bridge that was compromised by high water some time before I bought the property. With the arch design I can't imagine water ever washing the bridge out. However, I do worry about the banks eroding. A riprap is probably in order.

That's exactly what I thought about our telephone pole bridge and the 2X6's on top of it, but it still happened.

Very slick, indeed. I like that kinda stuff; wood rules! If you have drawings, sketches, and/or details of the design that you can scan, I would very much like a copy. I have a draw of similar proportion that I will have to negotiate sometime in the future and this may be the answer. Please shoot it over to my email address listed above.
Thanks in advance, JayMan.

Jay,

Very nice. I especially like the way you created the Jig to duplicat the arches!!

How did you get the pictures to post????

Eddie

Brettski, I sent you some info. I can probably dig up more if you need it. If you ever decide to build one let me know and I can give you some pointers.

eddie_walker, I am not sure what you mean? I think there is a FAQ somewhere about how to post images but generally you need to upload the pictures to the internet. You can use www.photobucket.com or personal webspace. Then just click the image button (toward the bottom) when posting to this forum. A box should pop up and you type the image URL in. An image URL looks like this
http://members.localnet.com/~jaynmeli/images/bridge.jpg
You can find an images url by right clicking on the picture and then selecting properties.

Your design looks very similar to kits available from the following web site. http://pacifi.ca/index.html
I know nothing about them, just happened upon them through a web search engine.

Schroeder,

Yes, basically the same. I give him all the credit for the design. I think he charges $25 for the drawing or he will sell a whole kit. He seems to be a nice guy as well.