No man’s land

If you are in walking around in London, you could be surprised when this bridge ‘goes up’. While most moving bridges go up the classical way, this ‘rolling bridge‘ does things a little different. How it works? This is what the website has to say:

Rather than a conventional opening bridge mechanism, consisting of a single rigid element that lifts to let boats pass, the Rolling Bridge gets out of the way by curling up until its two ends touch. While in its horizontal position, the bridge is a normal, inconspicuous steel and timber footbridge; fully open, it forms a circle on one bank of the water that bears little resemblance to its former self.

Twelve meters long, the bridge is made in eight steel and timber sections, and is made to curl by hydraulic rams set into the handrail between each section.

The bridge was designed by the London based Heatherwick Studio and won the 2005 British Structural Steel Award.

(spotted at www.asfaltkonijn.be)