Bailey bridge facts for kids

The Bailey bridge is a special type of truss bridge that is made in a factory. It was designed to be built quickly from small, easy-to-move sections. This bridge was created by the British during World War II for military use.
A Bailey bridge did not need special tools or heavy machines to put it together. Its parts, made of wood and steel, were light enough to be carried in trucks and lifted into place by hand. Even though they were easy to build, these bridges were strong enough to carry heavy tanks! Today, Bailey bridges are still used in building projects. They also provide temporary crossings for people and vehicles when other bridges are damaged or not yet built.
A British engineer named Donald Bailey designed this clever bridge. The British army tested different bridge ideas between 1941 and 1942. They tried a suspension bridge and a stepped arch bridge, but the flat truss bridge design was the best. An early test version of the Bailey bridge is still standing over Mother Siller's Channel in Dorset, England. The army first used the Bailey bridge in Tobruk in 1942. The US Army built many of these bridges after the D-Day landings in France.
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How a Bailey Bridge is Built
The basic Bailey bridge is made from three main parts: the floor, the stringers, and the side panels. Imagine it like a giant LEGO set!
- The floor of the bridge is made of many 19-foot-wide transoms (5.8 m) that go across the bridge.
- Underneath these, forming a square, are 10-foot-long stringers (3.0 m).
- The bridge gets its strength from the panels on its sides. These panels are 10-foot-long (3.0 m) and 5-foot-high (1.5 m). They are shaped like rectangles with criss-cross supports. Each panel weighs 570 pounds (260 kg), but six people can lift one.
The transoms sit on the lower part of the panels and are held together with clamps. The stringers are placed on top of this frame. Then, large pieces of wood are put on top of the stringers to create the road for vehicles. Metal strips called ribands bolt the wood planks to the stringers. Later in the war, steel plates were added over the wood to protect it from damage caused by tank tracks.
Each section built this way is 10-foot-long (3.0 m) and has a 12-foot-wide (3.7 m) road. Once a section is finished, it is pushed forward over rollers. Then, another section is built right behind it. The two sections are then connected using strong metal pins that are hammered into holes in the corners of the panels. This way, the bridge can grow longer and longer!
Bailey Bridges Around the World Today

Bailey bridges are still used regularly all over the world. Here are some cool examples:
- The longest Bailey bridge ever built was in October 1975. This 788 metres (2,585 ft), two–lane bridge crossed the Derwent River in Hobart, Australia. It was opened about a year after the Tasman Bridge disaster destroyed the only other river crossing, splitting the city in half. This temporary Bailey bridge was used until the Tasman Bridge was fixed and reopened on October 8, 1977.
- A Bailey bridge between the Suru River and Dras River in Ladakh, India, is the highest bridge in the world! It sits at an amazing altitude of 5,602 meters (18,379 ft) above sea level. The Indian Army built it in 1982.
- In the mid-1950s, Lime Rock Park, a place for car races in Lakeville, Connecticut, bought a Bailey bridge left over from WWII. This bridge allowed vehicles to enter the center of the track even while races were happening. The bridge has been used continuously ever since! It was moved to new, higher supports in 2008. This might be the only WWII Bailey bridge still used daily by the public in the U.S.
- In 2010, a footbridge being built at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in India collapsed. This happened just weeks before the 2010 Commonwealth Games were supposed to start there. Twenty-seven people were hurt. The Indian Army quickly built a new Bailey bridge to replace it in just four days, and it cost much less than the original bridge.
Other Uses for Bailey Bridge Parts
The Skylark launch tower at Woomera, a place where rockets are tested, was actually built using parts from Bailey bridges!
Images for kids
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A prototype Bailey Bridge at Stanpit Marsh in Dorset, England.
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Allied military traffic crosses a Bailey bridge in Italy in 1944. It spans a damaged section of an old stone arch bridge. Local workers are also busy rebuilding the original bridge.
See also
In Spanish: Puente Bailey para niños