Bridge in Rouen, France

A road trip to Rouen, northern France a while ago led me to this engineering marvel over the Seine: Pont Gustave-Flaubert. It’s actually an opening bridge, which I didn’t even realise whilst I was there. I sketched it here from a photograph I took myself.

It’s a cable-stayed bridge, meaning its weight is carried to the support via cables that connect it to the concrete towers. In fact, the cables wrap around pulleys, which allow for some movement of the structure, but thereby reducing the chance of fracture.

The cables transfer the weight on the bridge on to the reinforced concrete towers and thereby into the ground, producing a structurally stable and reliable yet lightweight bridge.

From inspection I imagine the platforms to be semi-rigid – anchored to the ground but with a pontoon-type floating top element, although this assumption is not confirmed.