Garrett's Bridges

Warren Truss

The Warren Truss was patented by James Warren in 1848. It has been around a while. It is one of the most popular bridge designs and examples of it can be found everywhere. The Warren Truss uses equilateral triangles to spread out the loads on the bridge. This is opposed to the Neville…

West Point Bridge Design Contest

The 2007 contest is over, check back next year for another chance to win! Here is the Local Contest’s winning bridge: This is not the winning design for the worldwide contest, just the GarrettsBridges.com local contest. Congratulations to Big Jake who submitted the design and won $100. Click here to go to the current West Point Bridge Design Contest discussion

Westminster Invitational 2006

Yesterday (Nov. 11, 2006) was the Science Olympiad competition, the Westminster Invitational. This has to be one of the earliest tournaments in Science Olympiad. Normally the invitationals aren’t until January. The boomilevers there were not impressive (including mine). Only one boomilever had an efficiency score over 200, which did happen to be mine. I placed first with a score of 252. My boomilever weighed 18.4 grams, and held 10.2 pounds (4.64 kilograms). This is a far call from my hoped […]

What Bridge Design Holds the Most Weight?

Probably the question I get asked the most is “What bridge design holds the most weight?” or “What bridge design is the strongest?”

The answer to that question is not simple and probably is not going to be what you expect. The truth is, I cannot answer the question. There are too many variables that are not being defined.

Whooping Creek Bridge Reopened

Today I found out that the Whooping Creek Bridge on Clem-Lowell road has been reopened. This was good and bad news for me. My brother and I drove down there this morning to try and film something for the music video we are making (see previous post). We thought it would be the perfect place because there would be no traffic. However, the bridge was not closed off when we got there. The bridge has not been fixed as far […]

Wood Tips: Balsa or Basswood?

I am constantly asked whether Balsa is better than Basswood. Here are some of my notes comparing the two woods. Balsa is cheaper and more available than Basswood. This means you can buy more wood and build more bridges for the same amount of money. Hobby and craft stores seem to sell a larger selection of Balsa (Michaels, etc). If money is short but you want to build a lot of bridges or plan to constantly improve your designs as […]

World’s Longest Popsicle Stick Bridge

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.