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Modern bridges where cables run directly from towers to the deck, creating a dramatic fan or harp pattern.
Total in US
70
Poor Condition
2.9%
Avg Sufficiency
70.1
Average Age
23 yrs
Cable-stayed bridges have become the bridge of choice for medium to long spans in modern construction. Unlike suspension bridges where the deck hangs from vertical cables attached to draped main cables, cable-stayed bridges run their cables directly from the tower to the deck in straight, diagonal lines. This creates the distinctive fan or harp pattern that gives these bridges their dramatic, modern appearance.
The design gained enormous popularity from the 1970s onward as advances in materials science and computer-aided engineering made it possible to precisely calculate the forces in each cable. Today, cable-stayed bridges are being built in record numbers worldwide, and they dominate the mid-range span category of 200 to 1,000 meters.
Cable-stayed bridges offer engineers significant flexibility in design. They can be built with one or two towers, with cables arranged in a fan (radiating from a single point on the tower), a harp (parallel cables), or a semi-fan pattern. The towers themselves can take many forms including A-shapes, H-shapes, inverted Y-shapes, or single pylons.
In a cable-stayed bridge, one or more towers (pylons) rise above the deck, and cables extend diagonally from the tower directly to the deck. Each cable acts as an inclined tension member supporting a section of the deck. The horizontal component of the cable force is resisted by the deck itself, which acts as a compression strut between the cable attachment points. The vertical component lifts the deck. The tower carries the combined vertical loads from all cables down to the foundation in compression. Because the cables connect directly to the deck rather than through a separate main cable, cable-stayed bridges are stiffer than suspension bridges and can be built using cantilevering techniques, extending the deck outward from the tower in both directions simultaneously.
The longest cable-stayed bridge in the world is the Russky Bridge in Vladivostok, Russia, with a main span of 1,104 meters (3,622 feet), opened in 2012 for an APEC summit that lasted just one week.
Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge (Charleston, SC)
Zakim Bridge (Boston, MA)
Sunshine Skyway Bridge (Tampa Bay, FL)
Fred Hartman Bridge (Houston, TX)
Veterans' Glass City Skyway (Toledo, OH)
Millau Viaduct (France, tallest bridge in the world at 343m)
There are 70 cable-stayed bridges in the United States.
Iconic bridges with a deck hung from cables draped over tall towers, capable of spanning enormous distances.
One of the oldest bridge forms, using a curved structure to transfer loads outward to abutments at each end.
Bridges built from interconnected triangular elements, combining strength and material efficiency.
The most common bridge type in America, using horizontal beams supported by piers to carry the deck.
| 6 |
| 8.6% |
| 6 | Indiana | 4 | 5.7% |
| 7 | West Virginia | 3 | 4.3% |
| 8 | Washington | 3 | 4.3% |
| 9 | Florida | 2 | 2.9% |
| 10 | Delaware | 2 | 2.9% |