Bridges presentation
curves evolved. Today's long-span reinforced- concrete bridges are descended from French gardener
Joseph Monier's flower pots and his numerous bridge patents granted between 1868 and 1878. He is
credited with being the first to understand the principles of reinforced concrete when in 1867 he
patented plant tubs of cement mortar strengthened with iron-wire mesh embedded in the concrete
and moulded into curvilinear forms. Not being an engineer, he was not permitted to build bridges in
France and so he sold his patents to German and Austrian contractors Wayss, Freitag and Schuster,
who built the first generation of reinforced concrete bridges in Europe: the Monierbrau 131ft (40m)
footbridge in Bremen (Germany) and the Wildegg Bridge, with a span of 121ft (37m), in
Switzerland. Additional patents were granted in Belgium, France and Italy, especially to the
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