Message #150680

[Christian Kielbasa]

Silver Bridge Rocker towers
The towers were "rocker" towers. These allow the bridge to respond to various live loads by a slight tipping of the supporting towers which were parted at the deck level, rather than passing the suspension chain over a lubricated or tipping saddle or by stressing the towers in bending. Thus the towers required the chain on both sides for their support, so failure of any one link on either side, in any of the three chain spans  would result in the complete failure of the entire bridge.