The bridge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The brace - Essay manikinMillennium Bridge was designed to carry large load and a degree of structures movement was expected and taken into account. However, after about 80000 people crossed it on the fountain day, some vibration was detected. The bridge began to sway sidewise noniceably, and the movement became so strong that people could not walk steady any more many had to cling to the sides of the bridge to maintain balance. The phenomenon of bridge sideways movement is not unique to the Millennium Bridge only. There were other structures, completely different from the precondition bridge that, to a various degree, suffered the same effect. However, those cases have not been widely publicized, thus the phenomenon, known as Synchronous Lateral Excitation, was not anticipated and has not been given enough attention by bridge engineers. When people walk they have a natural sway gesticulate. This very motion causes small rule-governed vibrations, which, as the result of chanc e correlation, generated slight lateral movement of the bridge. When that happened, pedestrians instinctively adjusted and synchronized their motion with bridges movement to counteract the effect and to walk more comfortably.