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by ElevenLathe 795 days ago
There so far haven't been any steel bridges that have actually lasted centuries, even if we highly suspect that they are capable of it with the right maintenance.
1 comments

Good point. The really old ones are iron.

ETA: Also, the ones that have survived aren't road bridges. They're either railway bridges (and thus were built strong in the first place) or have been relegated to historic preservation/pedestrian use only. Modern cars and (especially commercial) trucks are far heavier than early vehicles. A road bridge built in the 1850s was only designed to carry foot traffic and horsedrawn vehicles.