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West Point Bridge Designer is an engineering game and virtual bridge simulator. Your goal is to design and build a virtual bridge for the lowest possible cost.

Play West Point Bridge Designer

As a player you get to become a civil engineer bridge designer and design a virtual steel highway bridge to carry a two-lane highway spanning a river, similar to the process used by practicing civil engineers who design real highway bridges using similar computer-aided design (CAD) software that assists with complex mathematical
calculations. This game takes care of the complicated math, allowing you to focus on the creative engineering design process. Your goal is to design a bridge that doesn’t collapse when a load is put on it while trying to obtain the lowest possible cost in the process. Your design is facilitated by drawing it on your computer screen. Along the way, you are provided with educational information including: terminology definitions and sample bridge designs.

You have flexibility to create various designs selecting from a variety of size and shape configurations, making your bridge carry loads in different ways with differing site costs, as you work through attempts for the best construction in this bridge simulator. The game offers 392 possible design projects, each representing a different type of support or loading and all have a different cost. Your bridge will be tested to see if it has the strength capacity to carry the specified highway loads. You will get to watch a truck attempt to cross your bridge design. The truck is able to cross it successfully if your design is strong enough; otherwise you will watch as the structure collapses.

Your design may be refined once your mission has been successful. This exercise is a tool to assist you in your understanding about how structures work. Educational tools are also provided in the Design Tip of the Day and Notes and Tips sections, providing you with informative information to enhance your comprehension and improve your design efforts.

As a student virtual civil engineer you will experience:

Anchorage Selection choice: no Cable Anchorages; One Cable Anchorage; Two Cable Anchorages

Deck Elevation choices: 0-24 meters

No Pier (one span); Pier’s selection

Height of Pier (if used)

Height of Arch Abutments (if used)

Support Configuration choice: Standard Abutments; Arch Abutments

Loading Case choice: two AASHTO H25 truck loads, one in each traffic lane; one single 480kN Permit Loading (centered on the deck)

Deck Material choice: Medium-Strength Concrete; High-Strength Concrete

Select a Sample Design with accompanying span lengths, and see them materialize:  Pratt Deck Truss; Warren Through Truss; Continuous Arch; Howe Through Truss; Warren Deck Truss; Suspension Bridge; Cable-Stayed Bridge.

Materials Selection enabling you to choose: carbon steel; high-strength low-alloy steel; quenched & tempered steel; with solid bar or hollow tub, spanning from a range of lengths.

A Member Properties Report providing you with a breakdown of Material Properties (Material; Yield Stress (Fy); Modulus of Elasticity (E); Mass Density); Cross-Section Properties (Cross-Section type; Cross-Section size; Area; Moment of Inertia). This data is accompanied with a line graph visual.

Cost Calculations Report giving you a breakdown of: Material Cost (M); Connection Cost ©; Product Cost (P); Site Cost (S); and Total Cost.