Stone Arch Bridges

Author: StoneArchBridges

  • Drystack Wall

    Masonry: Always Moving

    Gravity, aided by natural forces like freeze/thaw cycles, is always at work on a masonry structure either pushing it more firmly in place or pulling it apart. By working with these forces, better structures can be built.

  • Stone Bridge Under Construction

    Stepped Foundations

    Building a good foundation is critical for long-term stability of a masonry structure. That said, it is often beneficial to change the depth of the foundation to accommodate sloping ground. In this post we investigate the topic.

  • Washed Out Roadbed

    Fill Work on a Stone Bridge

    Fill work on a stone arch bridge is best done cautiously, as the fill tends to play an important role in the overall stability of the bridge. Here are some tips and possible pitfalls for this type of maintenance.

  • Wilson Bridge

    Pointing Rubble Masonry

    Due to the lack of standard joint sizes in rubble masonry, repointing is a careful job requiring constant adaption to the masonry’s needs. Here are some ideas to help the job go smoothly,

  • Detail of Rubble Arch

    Natural Bedding

    The natural bed of a stone is the direction in which it was resting before it was quarried. A stone placed on its natural bed will tend to outlast one laid on end.

  • Camp Quaker Haven Stone Bridge

    The Camp Quaker Haven Bridge: A New Cowley Stone Bridge Built the Old Way (Part 4)

    We recently built a stone arch bridge at Camp Quaker Haven, a Christian retreat in Cowley County, Kansas. In this final post on this bridge, we describe how it was completed.

  • Keystones in the CQH SAB

    The Camp Quaker Haven Bridge: A New Cowley Stone Bridge Built the Old Way (Part 3)

    We recently built a stone arch bridge for Camp Quaker Haven in Cowley County, Kansas. In this third article describing the building of this bridge, we tell of how the arch was built.

  • CQH SAB with scour barrier and second course started

    The Camp Quaker Haven Bridge: A New Cowley Stone Bridge Built the Old Way (Part 2)

    In this second post of the series we wrote about a stone arch bridge we built at Camp Quaker Haven, in Cowley County, Kansas, we describe how the abutments for the arch were built.

  • Camp Quaker Haven Stone Bridge

    The Camp Quaker Haven Bridge: A New Cowley Stone Bridge Built the Old Way

    We recently built a stone arch bridge for Camp Quaker Haven in Cowley County, Kansas. In this post, the first of a four-part series, we describe the stone tradition of the camp and the beginning of the new bridge.