Thread: Viaducts
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Old June 28th 10, 04:41 AM posted to uk.transport.london,misc.transport.urban-transit
Glen Labah Glen Labah is offline
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Default Viaducts

In article ,
"Graham Harrison" wrote:

"E27002" wrote in message
...
On Jun 26, 8:15 am, Basil Jet wrote:
Why are American cities full of open girdered viaducts whereas British
cities are full of brick viaducts?


Availability of materials.

================

Might it also be something to do with the very nature of the viaducts? If
you think about the "elevateds" in the US many of them were built over roads
and I'm not sure how practical it would have been to use brick for that.




Also the era in which the lines were built.

Many of the open girded steel viaducts in the USA were built 1900s to
1920s, when mass produced steel beams and columns were fairly
commonplace. They also had to be painted to keep from rusting into
oblivion quite quickly.

My impression is that many of the British brick viaducts date from a
much earlier era.

In that same era, and indeed up until fairly recently in a number of
places in the USA, we would have used wooden bridges.

Today, it's all steel reinforced poured concrete, no matter where you go.

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