Overview

The suspension bridge using iron and/or steel as its structural material was a new form of spanning space developed in the nineteenth century. Used for pedestrian, vehicular, canal, and railroad traffic, this new bridge form celebrated the versatility and strength of iron and steel as structural elements. The resultant monumental technology created elegant and efficient bridges which captured the imagination of the public as well as the artistic community.

Background

Spanning space by suspending or hanging a bridge surface from towers dates to ancient times when people in Tibet and Peru used the design as foot bridges in the Himalayas and Andes. However, the modern form of the metal suspension bridge is a product of nineteenth-century designers in the United States, France, and Britain as a response to the increased transportation needs of industrialism.

The American James Finley, from Union-town...