Fabulous Bridges

My 1926 Children’s Encyclopaedia (yes, those were the days when ‘Encyclopedia’ had two ‘a’s in it) had a whole page of basic bridge structures. I loved the words – bascule, suspension, cantilever – as much as the pictures and was delighted to find them again in this modern version of a good old ‘Wonder Book’. What it does is look in well-photographed detail at some of the world’s most famous bridges and explains how their structures express the basic principles of bridgehood.

Starting with the Pont du Gard and Ironbridge, we visit Brooklyn (suspension), Forth Rail (cantilever), Sydney (arch), Ponchentrain (beam) and Norman Foster’s cable-stayed Millau Viaduct. Great pictures which the simple, large print and well laid out text do nothing to encumber make this book as entertaining as it is informative. McGonagall would have loved it and remembered it for a very long time.