History
Although the bascule bridge has been in use since ancient times, it was not until the 1850s that engineers developed the ability to move very long, heavy spans quickly enough for practical application. The Blagoveshchensky Bridge across the Neva River in Saint Petersburg was the first large bascule bridge, opened in 1850. Since then, all bridges across the Neva and other major rivers in the city (21 in total) were bascule to facilitate navigation, which prevented the city's inhabitants from travelling across the river at night (this remained so until 2003 when the first cable-stayed bridge across the Neva was opened).
Read more about this topic: Bascule Bridge
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“It is the true office of history to represent the events themselves, together with the counsels, and to leave the observations and conclusions thereupon to the liberty and faculty of every man’s judgement.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)