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| VR York - Virtual Tour of the Millennium Bridge You have chosen to view the QTVR panoramas, you may need to install QUICKTIME on your computer. |
The arch is one of the oldest and most enduring structural and architectural forms. Look at a Roman aqueduct or the vaulted structure of York Minster, arches reveal their inherent strength and beauty. York’s Millennium Bridge exploits these same ideas in a unique way - and one that employs hundreds of years of technological advances. Instead of the solidity usually associated with a normal stone, metal or concrete arch, the slenderest ribbon of stainless steel, strung with fine cables suspends the deck of the bridge. Using advanced computer modelling, virtual models of the bridge were constructed, and virtual loads applied. By studying the stresses, the design was then adapted, re-tested and optimised. The York bridge has been virtually tested thousands of times. Only after completing many virtual models and subjecting them to combinations of loading did building begin for real. York’s Millennium Bridge is a 21st century accomplishment. The high strength stainless steel arch has been refined to such extreme slenderness that it is almost impossible to believe that it can support such weight. Just as the spokes on a bicycle wheel hold the delicate rim taut, the cables restrain the arch. The deck is the hub of the imaginary wheel; a giant steel box welded together from thin plates stiff enough to withstand the inward pull of the cables. This structural box forms the deck you walk on or cycle across, and the bench you sit on. Leaning back, the arch is perfectly balanced by the cantilevered box section. There is more hidden away underground. The slender piers sit on foundations with giant columns of concrete, almost a metre in diameter, boring down through the soil to the firmer ground below. Similar to other lightweight pedestrian bridges, the York Millennium Bridge experiences a significant increase in stress caused by people crossing it, compared with its unloaded condition. However the York Millennium Bridge is different to other footbridges that have suffered unacceptable vibrations in operation, because it is stiffer side-to-side, due to its asymmetric shape and box deck. The bridge has been designed to behave in a safe and consistent way, regardless of the weather or the numbers of people crossing it. VR Photography: Tony Quinn © Red Door VR Limited. |
Tracking since 13th March 2007: