, across the
River Rothay, in the Lake District, England The simplest type of bridge is
stepping stones, so this may have been one of the earliest types of footbridge.
Neolithic people also built a form of a
boardwalk across marshes, of which the
Sweet Track, and the
Post Track are examples from England, that are around 6000 years old. Undoubtedly ancient peoples would also have used
log bridges; that is a
timber bridge that fall naturally or are intentionally felled or placed across streams. Some of the first man-made bridges with significant spans were probably intentionally felled trees. Among the oldest
timber bridges is the
Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden crossing upper
Lake Zürich in Switzerland; the prehistoric timber piles discovered to the west of the
Seedamm date back to 1523 B.C. The first wooden footbridge led across
Lake Zürich, followed by several reconstructions at least until the late 2nd century AD, when the
Roman Empire built a wooden bridge. Between 1358 and 1360,
Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, built a 'new' wooden bridge across the lake that was used until 1878 – measuring approximately in length and wide. On April 6, 2001, the reconstructed wooden footbridge was opened, being the longest wooden bridge in Switzerland. A
clapper bridge is an ancient form of bridge found on the moors of
Devon (
Dartmoor and
Exmoor) and in other upland areas of the United Kingdom including
Snowdonia and
Anglesey,
Cumbria,
Yorkshire and
Lancashire. It is formed by large flat slabs of stone, often
granite or
schist, supported on stone piers (across rivers), or resting on the banks of streams. Although often credited with prehistoric origin, most were erected in
medieval times, and some in later centuries. A famous example is found in the village of
Postbridge. First recorded in the 14th century, the bridge is believed to have been originally built in the 13th century to enable
pack horses to cross the river. Nowadays, clapper bridges are only used as footbridges. The
Kapellbrücke is a footbridge crossing the
River Reuss in the city of
Lucerne in Switzerland. It is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, and one of Switzerland's main tourist attractions. The bridge was originally built 1365 as part of Lucerne's fortifications. An early example of a
skyway is the
Vasari Corridor, an elevated, enclosed passageway in
Florence, Italy, which connects the
Palazzo Vecchio with the
Palazzo Pitti. Beginning on the south side of the Palazzo Vecchio, it then joins the
Uffizi Gallery and leaves on its south side, crossing the Lungarno dei Archibusieri and then following the north bank of the
River Arno until it crosses the river at
Ponte Vecchio. It was built in five months by order of Duke
Cosimo I de' Medici in 1565, to the design of
Giorgio Vasari.
Bank Bridge is a famous 25 metre long pedestrian bridge crossing the
Griboedov Canal in
Saint Petersburg, Russia. Like other bridges across the canal, the existing structure dates from 1826. The special popularity of the bridge was gained through angular sculptures of four winged lions crowning the
abutments. They were designed by sculptor Pavel Sokolov (1764-1835), who also contributed lions for
Bridge of Lions. ==Types==