Floating suspension bridge

Imagine you're playing with a toy bridge, and you have two blocks on either end of the bridge that you want to move up and down. But instead of touching each other, the blocks are floating in water!

Now, imagine a really big bridge over a river or a bay, but instead of sitting on supports that go all the way down to the bottom of the water, the bridge is floating on top of the water like your toy blocks.

This is a floating suspension bridge!

The bridge has really strong cables, called suspension cables, that are anchored to the shore. These cables hang down and attach to the bridge deck, which is the part you actually drive on.

The bridge deck is filled with air-filled chambers that keep it from sinking. This means that even though the bridge is floating, it can still hold up cars and trucks (just like a regular bridge).

Now, remember those toy blocks from earlier? Imagine those are big concrete blocks on either end of the bridge deck. When a car or truck drives onto the bridge, it creates weight to push down on the blocks. This weight causes the bridge deck to sink a little bit into the water, but those air-filled chambers keep it afloat.

As the bridge deck sinks, it pulls the suspension cables tighter. This tension helps keep the bridge from wobbling or swaying too much as cars and trucks drive across.

Floating suspension bridges are really cool because they can stretch across big bodies of water without needing to build tall piers or towers for support. Plus, they just look really neat!