Design Of Long Span Bridges And High Rise Buildings In The Twenty-First Century

Long span bridges and high rise buildings are two types of structures that have always arisen the atten­tion of engineers and architects. The former are appropriate for creating crossings over wide rivers or estuaries in a sort of recreation of the geography of our planet. The latter are many times used to be a symbol of the wealthy of the cities where they are erected.

Construction of both typologies has experienced a dramatic activity since the last decades of the past century in many countries located in different continents such as Europe, Asia or America, and such tendency has even increased in recent years, and several challenging proposals have also been proposed for the years to come.

This article starts with a brief description of the capabilities and advantages of long span bridges and tall buildings. Afterwards, a description of the main realizations of suspension and cable-stayed bridges already existing all around the world is presented mentioning their main characteristics and fea­tures. Additionally, information on bridge projects that could take place in a near future are mentioned. Then, a similar treatment is carried out for the vast collection of signature buildings erected in the last decades. It will be observed that in addition to the new tall structures in already very cosmopolitan cit­ies, many of them have been built in other places and have transformed radically the skyline of cities in China, Singapore, Korea or the Arabic Gulf countries, to name a few.