Rolling Bridge, located on the Paddington Basin in London, was created by Thomas Heatherwick. It is 12 meters long and opens every Friday at noon.
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.
The Rolling Bridge VIdeo
Also check out: Trampoline Bridge and LEGO Bridge
michael
Incredible, but too slow!
Sep 21st, 2008
James
Can’t wait to see who will be the first person to get stuck in this bridge.
Sep 22nd, 2008
Jon
I like how if you stand still at the front it will form an inescapable cage around you :)
Sep 22nd, 2008
garnettxd
the buffering youtube makes the bridge even slower
Sep 22nd, 2008
bridge-enthusiast
fun fun fun fun
Sep 22nd, 2008
Joe
Too slow… and small.
I am curious how it’s powered…
Sep 22nd, 2008
Andrew
joe: hydraulics, you can see the pistons clearly in the pictures. All they need to do is extend to close and extract to open. As per most pistons, I’d assume there’s some pumping going on.
Sep 22nd, 2008
Miles
“I am curious how it’s powered…”
I’d say the hydraulic cylinders clearly visible in all the above shots are a fair giveaway :p
That’s the biggest problem I see with this design, it’d be exceedingly difficult to scale it up to a road-sized bridge
Sep 22nd, 2008
Television Spy
@Jon
I like how you think, was thinking exactly that myself.
Sure it’s a pretty slow and tiring way to trap someone, but once done it’d be hilarious.
Sep 22nd, 2008
LA Bear
Dude, I could have walked around it already.
Sep 22nd, 2008
alex
it looks like the sidewalk is getting a boner
Sep 22nd, 2008
artist
Im pretty sure it’s one of those art “form over function” deals, they have no intention of using it practically.
Sep 22nd, 2008
greg
i want to launch off it
Sep 22nd, 2008
Anonymous
Greg: I had the same idea. I wonder who the first will be to jump their bike off this?
You could just wait a little longer in the process to get a better incline.
I also wonder how well those hydraulics and the bridge itself would hold people while retracting? :|
Sep 22nd, 2008
Steve
It’s awesome and shows how we still have the best engineers in the world…but 2 minutes to close?!
Sep 22nd, 2008
Justin White
Wow, that is absolutely amazing. very cool indeed.
Sep 22nd, 2008
Don
Seems it would be more power efficient if it started “rolling” at the far end and rolled toward the anchor point. Raising the whole thing like they do is the most inefficient way. Makes you think the entire hydraulic system is actuated all at once instead of each piece of the bridge being allowed to actuate independently. Less valves to worry about I suppose.
Sep 22nd, 2008
Paul
The bridge does go faster, but they slowed it down because it freaked people out
Sep 22nd, 2008
F. Yang
This is way cool!
Sep 22nd, 2008
COLESEPPY
LOL great idea, wish i thought of it. For a sec. i thought it would be cooler if it raising served some purpose or was useful in someway but then i snapped out of it. I LOVE POINTLESS CRAP. this would seem to be about as pointless as it gets
Sep 22nd, 2008
Skull0Inc
Well, it is not entirely pointless, as it makes and bridges a gap between two points, kind of like a draw bridge would but in a mordern setting. It also gives us a reconstructed(every time it is opened and closed) definition of what a bridge’s function is visually in real time.
Sep 22nd, 2008
GarettM
The point of the bridge rolling up is to move it out of the way so boats can pass through the canal which is being bridged. At least I’d assume that canal carries on. Note the small boats/barges in the background.
Sep 22nd, 2008
Patrick Hogan
Hi,
The Bridge cost $500,000 and this Summer it was removed because it stopped working due to possible vandalism.
They are not sure it will ever be put back.
regards Patrick.
Sep 22nd, 2008
Brett
“Seems it would be more power efficient if it started “rolling” at the far end and rolled toward the anchor point. Raising the whole thing like they do is the most inefficient way. Makes you think the entire hydraulic system is actuated all at once instead of each piece of the bridge being allowed to actuate independently. Less valves to worry about I suppose.”
I think “rolling” each section one at a time would make it slower but how exactly would that make it more efficient? Wouldn’t each Hydraulic component carry the same weight no matter when it operates?
Sep 23rd, 2008
Kaja
This is not a bridge, it’s a tourist atrraction and guess what, I like it!
Sep 23rd, 2008
Vovan
Nice
Sep 23rd, 2008
Ran
@Brett: I think Don is right. The greater the horizontal distance between a given piston, and the center of gravity of the segments after that piston, the greater the moment induced by the weight of those segments (M = F*d), and the greater the force the piston will have to exert in order to counteract that moment. (Think of the bridge as a lever with a fulcrum at one end and a weight somewhere along its length. The closer the weight is to the fulcrum, the easier it is to lift; and the closer you are to the fulcrum, the harder it is for you to lift.)
However, I don’t think there’s any way to make this bridge as efficient as a simple sliding-back-onto-the-sidewalk scheme, so they probably went with the way that they thought looked coolest. I think they made the right choice. :-)
Sep 23rd, 2008
Krazd
wow, awesome design! I wonder how much weight this bridge can hold
Sep 23rd, 2008
Krazd
reminds me of an isopod (rolly polies)
Sep 23rd, 2008
Patrick Hogan
“With the end bay securely fixed to one side of the dock, the remaining seven bays powered by hydraulic rams, push the handrails upwards lifting the bridge and then roll it back to form an enclosed ball. The result is a delicate balance of art, machine and structure.
Designed to open in 180 seconds, the innovative concept was realised by the close cooperation and skills of the design team. Extensively modelled in CAD and exported to Robot analysis software, our team used bridge models for the static analysis, as well as confirmation of the geometry. In addition, using animation tools, a virtual working model was generated to confirm the motion and allow component measurements in any configuration.”
Sep 24th, 2008
Daniel, The Hosting Blog
Looks like a tongue lol. It is a good idea for some future inventions. It would be practical if you could roll that up to like half its size and have it expand a lot faster. Rollup bridgers
Sep 24th, 2008
THOMAS KUTTY
verey good
Aug 13th, 2009
DJ lazy boy
AWSOME
Apr 16th, 2012
여인주
Hi. I’m korean. Rolling Bridge is beautiful. Mechatronics will make it smaller.
Mar 23rd, 2013
Keala
Fantastic design, would it be possible to design a bridge to carry 70 tons of vehicle 120 ft with a roll out time of 3 minutes?
Aug 23rd, 2016