Our Suspension Bridges

History - page 5

The Towers were built in the field in front of the house, then dissasembled and moved to the bridge location.

The towers consist of two telephone poles (12-14 inch diameter) nearly parallel (wider at the base by 4 inches for stability). The poles were notched on both sides at the top and the level where the decking would be. Into the notches we places 2x8 boards at the top and 2x10 boards for the deck ends support. Additionally, 2x8 boards were used as cross bracing on the lower half. All the boards were fastened using 14-16 inch long stove bolts. The cap pieces for the towers were made by cutting a section of telephone pole length wise to create two 4 foot long 14 inch half rounds. The base of each pole was drilled to allow the poles to sit over the pins in the foundation.

Sections of galvanized stovepipe were nailed to the cap to provide a smooth saddle for cable movement during expansion and contraction of the cables with the seasons.

top half of tower
showing notched boards, cap, and slip plates

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