Osaka Bay Bridges: Minato Bridge (2)

I thought we'd take one more look at the Minato Bridge before we moved on.

It's a really big bridge, with the third longest center span of any truss bridge in the world (after the Firth of Forth Bridge that was built in 1890). Since the Minato Bridge was built in the 1970's, this record may be a reflection on the lack of interest in truss bridges in recent years.

Suspension, arch, and cable-stayed bridges increase in length and ingenuity every year. However, truss bridges are expensive to build, difficult to maintain, and limited in length.

However, the fact that cantilever trusses need no falsework, may make them the best choice in some situations.

Osaka Bay Bridges: Minato Bridge (2) by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.