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Henry David Thoreau Footbridge

Washington, CT

This new pedestrian bridge in a western Connecticut nature preserve spans 134 feet over the Shepaug River, providing universal access to nature trails on the north side.

Silman employed a bridge design that is a hybrid between a cable stayed bridge and suspension bridge, with its deck being supported from vertical suspender cables. These cables splay from a single 35-foot-tall mast on one riverbank and extend to the opposite riverbank, where they disappear into a steep hillside. The 5-foot wide bridge deck – composed of multiple parallel 8” x 8” glulam beams – arches as it spans over the river and curves in plan as it reaches the bank near the nature trail.

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