Talk:3097: Bridge Types

For budget overrun, see olympic stadium of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 162.158.126.202 01:23, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Very disappointed there's no bridge card game reference, but I guess that's not one of Randall's types of nerdiness :( 172.71.254.203 01:45, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I would like to note that cable stayed bridges, budget overrun here, are much cheaper than equivalent suspension bridges. It because they use less materials and can be built faster meaning less labor. 172.69.58.51 01:50, 3 June 2025‎

Tru dat in general, but I think that this is a reference to the Zakim Bridge in downtown Boston, part of the "Big Dig" project that became notorious for its budget overruns and related shenanigans. Given that Randall M. lives in Boston, that makes this panel something of an inside joke. 172.71.147.224 03:15, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The St. Louis Arch is a repurposed-elevator-suspended-arch-but-without-the-base-and-wires bridge if you squint hard enough. The elevator is also fun. 172.69.67.214 01:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Nothing about a a bridge circuit or these many other bridges either. Sigh. 172.69.67.214 01:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

And where, oh where, are Lloyd, Beau, Jeff, and Jordan? 162.158.41.84 03:19, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The L'Engle is a take off on a Wrinkle in time? But this one is in space? -- 162.158.91.124 (talk) 02:26, 3 June 2025‎ (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

There's some space-warping in L'Engle's books. 162.158.174.63 02:44, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The "budget overrun" bridge doesn't really look like the Zakim bridge to me. It looks a lot like the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin. I don't know what the budget of that bridge was, but according to wiki it cost 60 million euros, which sounds like a lot given that the bridge isn't all that long or wide. 172.70.126.87 03:24, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Perhaps if Randall M. drew too close a likeness to the Zakim Bridge, he feared a visit from officials with lawyers and/or cement shoes. ("Only the paranoid survive ...") It seems, from a quick tour of the Internet, that words like "grandiose and overblown" are easily applied to cable-stayed bridge designs/aesthetics. I wasn't easily able to find information on budget overruns for these bridges, and see the commentator above who pointed out the lower costs overall of cable-stayed vs suspension bridges. But as a former resident of Greater Boston, I can report the pervasiveness of the Big Dig and its challenges, budgetary and otherwise, in local life and lore. 172.68.22.108 04:32, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The cable-stayed bridge is the current darling of artists that accidentally went to engineering school, who are notorious for running over budget and behind schedule. RegularSizedGuy (talk) 04:40, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I can see the suggestion of the Beckett bridge, but in my eyes the obvious template would be Rotterdam's Erasmus Bridge Nachtvogel (talk) 06:00, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Could "budget overrun" be a reference to Polybridge and other similar "Bridge Architect" games where player has a very limited budget for building materials? 37.47.135.196 02:58, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

I think the repurposed elevator should be considered a dig at Elon Musks The Boring Company, even though they tunnel rather then bridge 162.158.182.138 04:37, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Added a bunch of explanations 162.158.8.132 07:31, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The Repurposed Elevator is actually a real thing! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmid_Peoplemover It's not as strange as you think. It's a space effective, but too expensive solution to the problem of not making cramped railway crossroads more cramped. 162.158.172.112 07:39, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I've added it to the list. Feel free to do such changes yourself if you know something that can contribute. --172.71.183.12 08:07, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The Vizcaya Bridge in Bilbao (Spain) is a good example of elevator bridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vizcaya_Bridge 90.173.49.42 15:23, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

That's a Transporter Bridge, which (as someone mentioned below) is a separate thing that's surprisingly not really covered in the comic. It bears some operational similarities to a sideways-elevator, arguably more so than the Peoplemover that combines directions of travel rather than just changes that travel, but the hanging (suspension) element from the (truss-)supported carriage adds in other things that surely could have attracted parody (as a 'real type of bridge, possibly abnormally named) if it was within Randall's radar. 82.132.235.191 17:51, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

For the "Google Earth Bridge" remark, this article might work as a citation. Conster (talk) 07:57, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Do we have to single out Google for this? Apple maps did a fantastic job of melting bridges as well... :D 162.158.42.38 19:47, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

There seem to be stick figures on each bridge, except for the Arch. Is that on phone? Maybe he's saying nobody uses arch (Linux)? Or does anyone has any other idea as to why? 172.69.128.184 08:21, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Is there a reason for the trestle bridge to have a raised deck? They were iconically used for railways, where that would not work. --162.158.110.59 09:56, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The jump in particular feels a lot like polybridge and I love it 172.71.167.160 11:27, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Alas, no love (or even any acknowlegement) for the Transporter bridge, it seams... 172.69.79.165 16:11, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

I live in Montreal, and the "budget overrun" immediately made me think of our Olympic Stadium, which we affectionately call "The Big Owe". 162.158.126.10 20:38, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

The closest thing to a "repurposed elevator" I know is a bus in Tirana in Albania, which accidentaly crashed off the road and over a river, and served as ab impromptu bridge for a while.

Suspended arch - tied-arch vs. through arch: The "suspended arch" bridge may or may not be a tied-arch bridge. Something has to stop the ends of the arch sliding outwards when there's a large load in the middle, but you can't tell what that something is from the image.

If that something is the bridge deck, being connected to the ends of the arch and under tension, than it's a tied-arch bridge (the deck ties the ends of the arch together). If that something is the arch foundations, and the deck is not under tension, then it's not a tied-arch bridge; it's just a simple through-arch bridge.

For more info on (real) bridges, Practical Engineering --DW 162.158.187.69 13:24, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

'Drawbridge' to me means a defensive bridge that crosses the moat of a castle, and can be pulled up when defending it. See, eg., my favourite castle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodiam_Castle 172.69.224.115 15:05, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Agreed. What they have there is a lift bridge. Yorkshire Pudding (talk) 15:55, 3 June 2025 (UTC)

Well, as an abbreviated version of the vertical-lift bridge, I might quibble about even that descriptor. (But "bascule" became current, in-description, for which the main complaint might be only that it's a less known and more obscure name.) 82.132.234.190 13:18, 5 June 2025 (UTC)

This is great timing, I was just today made aware of what I initially assumed to be a poor translation of "draw bridge", before realizing it was indeed its own distinct thing! It was Leonardo Da Vinci's Pivot Bridge PotatoGod (talk) 19:04, 5 June 2025 (UTC)