A bridge in which the roadway is suspended from spans of ropes, chains or wire cables attached to and extending between supports (in the case of a large bridge, towers of masonry or steel).
Also formerly called suspended bridge, bridge of suspension, suspension chain bridge (see SUSPENDED 6, SUSPENSION 9, 12), and CHAIN-BRIDGE.
1821. Edin. Philos. Jrnl., V. Index 419. Stevenson, Mr. R. … on the history and construction of suspension bridges.
1823. Seaward, in Philos. Mag., 31 Dec., 426. The first suspension bridges that were ever formed, were probably nothing more than two or three ropes or flexible chains stretched across a river from two eminences, upon which boards were placed.
1832. Brewster, Nat. Magic, ix. 226. The suspension bridge across the Menai strait in Wales.
1835. Partington’s Brit. Cycl. Arts & Sci., II. 802/1. The most severe trial to which a suspension bridge can be exposed is that of a body of troops marching over it in regular step.
1876. Encycl. Brit., IV. 301/2. A very simple form of suspension bridge has long been used in Peru and Thibet.
