PAST INFLUENCE ON PRESENT EXPECTATIONS

The public likes masonry arch bridges, especially old stone ones, it likes suspension bridges (rather than more cable stayed ones), it accepts almost any timber bridges, it is often spell-bound by steel or concrete arches over deep valleys or cuttings, but its attitude to today's medium span bridges, as over motorways, tend to range from indifference to hostility. To a lesser extent this dissatisfaction applies also to some major river crossings. Why?

Is it that almost all of today's bridges, mostly based on some variant of the beam, are out of line with childhood images of "a bridge", is it that many of these bridges are coarsely detailed or is there some deeper hankering after curved forms? Perhaps all three. However one must not paint too gloomy a picture. Some extremely elegant bridges of all sizes have been designed in Britain but visually the average marks are not high.