This week's theme for the 3D Challenge is "Bridge that Span." A moderator supplied a piece of topography with a river-like feature, and the idea was to model some method for getting across. As furnished, the river in the starter model measured about 500 - 600 feet across, so I decided to model an Arch bridge, which is a type of bridge construction suitable for spans in that general range. I was going to base my bridge on the Yaquina Bay Bridge in Oregon (longest span = 600 ft or 183 m). It's a very striking structure. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:YaquinaBayBridge1.jpg

Then the moderators stipulated that the scale of the topography could be altered to suit the concept for crossing (e.g., foot bridge, suspension bridge, ferry, catapult). I would have preferred a fixed span as presenting more of an engineering challenge, but the moderators carried on about how the scaling wrinkle gave greater scope for creativity, so I decided to push the scaling thing to the extreme. I ended up scaling down the river so that its span is about three feet (around 91 cm). Here is my entry:

images: http://3dchallenge.sketchup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1283&d=1166837728 http://3dchallenge.sketchup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1284&d=1166837791 http://3dchallenge.sketchup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1285&d=1166837842

model: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=276f8743f330a5f39b56589f19ea0d3a

-Gully