We finally finished the bridge this week! First, we made sure all the cables were attached and the roadbed suspended from them. This took some expert knot tying since we were using rope for the cables, but we had an expert or two. Mr. Bergen decided to test the bridge early and we had a small issue though; one of the pieces in our span started to pull apart. The wood cracked and the center span looked as though it may collapse. Mr. Bergen came up with a solution of some metal plates to tie the pieces together. The students jumped into action and the crisis was over. Next came the arduous task of putting the decking (plywood) onto the truss sections. This required some precise fitting, but with the use of reciprocating saw and drill it was accomplished. Then many students needed to secure the decking down with some screws and we were ready for our test. The majority of those who worked on the bridge were able to stand on it with Mr. Bergen on our last day of school. Quite a few were unable to make the photo, but their work does not go unappreciated. (Mr. Bergen authored this post, but the credit goes to Rachel for creating and updating this blog) Some other work shots from this last week:
