About Garrett Boon

I was born in Walnut Creek, CA in 1989. I claim my fascination with bridges comes from having been born so close to the Golden Gate Bridge, one of the greatest bridges of all time. Now I live in West Georgia, which is not near any cool bridges, unfortunately. I grew up on a small farm with lots of animals. I have a great family, 1 brother and 2 sisters. Model bridge building has been such a huge part of my life, and this website is the expression of my crazy little hobby.

My Bridge Building Story

Once upon a time, my mom introduced me to Science Olympiad (where would we be without moms?). The rest is history…

I spent seven years participating as a student in Science Olympiad building and technology events. I won 17 awards in the Bridge Building, Tower Building, & Boomilever events, including seven 1st places. In the spring of 2004, I took first place at the Georgia State Finals in Bridge Building, breaking a 4-year efficiency record with my bridge.

I started building model bridges in 2000 for Science Olympiad. That first year my partner and I only built one bridge, which took 2nd place at our regional competition. The second year we did better, and got 7th place at the state tournament. After the second year, my partner and coach moved to another state. At that point, I was still very green in building bridges. But I was a determined little guy, and built over 50 bridges the third year (2002).

That was when I really started to learn. Mostly by trial and error, I found a lot of designs that didn’t work and some that did. That year I won my regional competition and took 4th at the Georgia Science Olympiad State tournament. I was greatly disappointed at not making the top three. My disappointment doubled when I learned that I missed 2nd place by only two grams. For comparison, one popsicle stick weighs ~1.5 grams.

I was determined to do better the next year. I began to study the theory behind how bridges work. I made only about 10 bridges that year, working hard to perfect each one. The hard work paid off and when the regional tournament came around and I won 1st place. At the award ceremony, the tournament director called my bridge, “The most magnificent bridge design I have ever seen.”

That year I also won the State tournament in Bridge Building with this bridge. That bridge holds a special place in my heart, and is the only intact bridge I still have to this day.

In my high school years, I entered the Science Olympiad tower and boomilever building competitions. In 2005, my tower placed 2nd in the state. Had my team advanced to the national tournament, my tower would have been in the top 15. 15th in the nation isn’t too bad.

On June 6th, 2005, I got a business license to start selling popsicle bridge plans online. My business name is, naturally enough, Garrett’s Bridges. My goal is to help students in making model bridges. Sometimes they are given a project and just have no idea where to start. That is where my plans come in. Currently I am selling only popsicle bridge plans, but hope to add other types of bridges in time.

Now:
Now I build bridges for fun when I have the time, which unfortunately isn’t often. My latest project was building a five foot long popsicle stick bridge from my dorm bed to my roommate’s bed strong enough to walk across. I call it the Prairie Popsicle Stick Bridge.

I am currently attending Prairie Bible College in Three Hills, Alberta. I am in a four-year outdoor education and leadership program called Explore. I also have a personal blog at www.garrettboon.com.

Because of the nature of my college program, I do not have a lot of time to invest in creating new material for this website. I have made a way for you to upload photos of your bridges, so please do this to help make this website continue to be a valuable resource for model bridge builders.

Contact Information:
Garrett Boon
Email: webmaster@garrettsbridges.com