This is a very simple yet elegant looking bridge that I built over Christmas break. This bridge spanned 16 inches and was made from 48 popsicle sticks. It held 75 pounds, which was right at what I was expecting.

I built this popsicle stick bridge to complete my short popsicle bridge series. This bridge uses the Howe Truss design. Previous to this I had built bridges using the Pratt and Warren trusses. This bridge was 13.5 inches long and used 50 popsicle sticks. It ended up holding 117 pounds before failing.

Here is the story of the Prairie Popsicle Stick Bridge told in video format. As far as I know, this is the longest working popsicle stick bridge that a person can walk across. If you know of a longer bridge that does the same, please let me know. The largest popsicle bridge was built back in 2008 in my dorm room at Prairie Bible College. For many nights I slept on the floor, as I was using my bed space as a worktable to glue the bridge together.

This bridge is supporting 191lbs of weight. It didn’t break, that was all the weight we could fit in the trash can. I believe this is close to the maximum load it could hold because the platform the jig is resting on was significantly bowed. The rest of the structure was rock solid. The construction of the bridge is popsicle sticks

I have always wanted to build a model suspension bridge, and finally I have finished one. This is a popsicle stick suspension bridge. I created it from scratch, coming up with the design on my own. After testing it to failure I learned quite a bit about how suspension bridges react to loads. This model suspension bridge uses popsicle sticks as the main building material. The decking is cardboard, and the “cables” are 550 parachute cord (military surplus)

This is the updated design of my Short Pratt Truss Bridge made from popsicle sticks. The only difference was the addition of 4 more popsicle sticks in key areas. I doubled up the angled sticks on each end, and made the lateral bracing into an X shape rather than a zig-zag pattern

This is a popsicle stick bridge I built using the Pratt Truss design. This bridge is 13.5 inches long, 4 inches tall, and 3.75 inches wide. This bridge weighed about 70 grams and held 73 pounds before breaking. I used 46 popsicle sticks to build this bridge. That gives it an efficiency score of 474

I found pictures of some old trusses I built for Science Olympiad bridges. Most of these were built in the 2003-2004 school year. I thought I would post them to give examples of how these trusses could be used in model bridges

We run a comp here at Albury High in Australia for our Yr 12 Engineering Studies students involving max. 50 popsicle sticks, PVA wood glue and 2m of extra strong thread.  Structures have to span 400mm and are centrally loaded.  Here’s a photo of our 2010 winner which weighed in at 69 grams and held 58kgs giving an efficiency using the formula on your website if i used it correctly of around 12000!

These are some pictures of a bridge I built mainly out of boredom, but also since I have an interest in engineering. It’s a large cantilever bridge, meaning it has two arms that extend beyond their piers that hold up a center suspended span. It’s 10′ 2″ long and as of right now is hanging across my bedroom ceiling