My partner, Ari, and I decided t0 try and build a suspension bridge for this project. We spent much longer than most planning it out, and although we made quite a few errors, our bridge ended up holding about 160 pounds.

We wanted to really utilize the string given to us, so we measured out how many “cables” we could make, keeping in mind the distance needed to tie the string. We used 2 vertical pieces, which was a good idea, although we should have considered in advance the height the bridge would need to be in order to rest between two objects we could easily find.

When planning our bridge according to the criteria, we made sure it was 3 inches wide, but overlooked the rule than all pieces of wood should be a maximum of 1/8 inch. So, we had to spend an entire work block cutting and gluing back together the wood. We did not consider the fact that the wood the blade took off would shrink the width of the bridge by 1/4 of an inch, enough to put its width at just under 3 inches.

Once built, we ran into a few problems with the bases of the vertical pieces, but quickly redesigned them. This problem was due to my own miscalculations in the planning stage. However, we were able to come up with a new solution, that worked for the most part, aside from one piece breaking while we were not there.

When nailing the horizontal pieces in, it seemed that we had a good design, but fearful of putting screws in at an angle, we decided to have the horizontal pieces at slight angles. This became a major issue that caused our bridge to twist when under heavy weight. Had we connected the two pieces at the ends or managed to screw in at an angle, our bridge design would have been much more successful.

Overall, I’m happy with our suspension cable idea, as the string held up weight very well. Next time, we would take into consideration the twisting effects and calculate everything a bit more precise to the criteria.