• 25 parts
  • Checked September 2026

Parts of a Bridge

Tap a bridge part to read its name, or press Quiz me to find each one.

Parts of a Bridge

Name Date

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
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Write the name of each numbered part.Answer key

  1. Approach (approach roadway)
  2. Deck
  3. Parapet (barrier wall)
  4. Span
  5. Girder (main beam)
  6. Abutment (end support)
  7. Pier cap
  8. Pier (middle support)
  9. Footing
  10. Piles
  11. Wingwall
  12. Approach slab
  13. Deck joint (expansion joint)
  14. Wearing surface (overlay)
  15. Backwall
  16. Bearing (bearing pad)
  17. Bridge seat (bearing seat)
  18. Saddle (cable saddle)
  19. Main span (center span)
  20. Side span
  21. Tower
  22. Main cable (suspension cable)
  23. Suspender (hanger)
  24. Stiffening truss
  25. Anchorage (anchor block)

Drawn for this site on 2026-09-26: A two-span beam bridge with the ground cut away, a close-up slice of its left end, and a suspension bridge, drawn to the layout grid in the art brief Our own geometry. Licence: own work.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a part is answered.

Next step Next: another structure built for the water

All 25 parts on the diagram

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Start here: 6 main parts 6

  1. Deck Gives traffic a smooth, safe riding surface. It passes the weight of vehicles, and its own weight, down to the superstructure. The most common bridge deck material is concrete.
  2. Span The distance between the supports of a beam. This bridge has two. Each is a simple span, a beam on just two supports. Under load the bottom of such a beam is stretched (tension) and the top is squeezed (compression).
  3. Girder (main beam) The main horizontal support of a structure. It is any large beam, especially one built up from plates. A beam spans from one support to another and carries vertical loads. A girder bridge has two or more under its deck.
  4. Abutment (end support) The part of the substructure at either end of a bridge. It transfers loads from the superstructure to the foundation and holds up the side of the approach embankment, so it is a support and a retaining wall at once.
  5. Pier (middle support) Supports a multi-span bridge's spans at a point between its abutments. It is a substructure unit. The three basic types are the column pier, the pier wall and the tower pier.
  6. Bearing (bearing pad) A support element that transfers loads from the superstructure to the substructure. It allows limited movement. It lets the beam end rotate, and an expansion bearing also lets it shift as the span changes length with temperature.

Beam bridge, side view 6

  1. Approach (approach roadway) The part of the roadway immediately before and after the bridge structure. It often runs on an embankment, a mound of earth built above the natural ground to carry the road.
  2. Parapet (barrier wall) A low wall along the outermost edge of the roadway. It protects vehicles and pedestrians. When the barrier is built like a fence, of posts and rails, it is called a railing instead.
  3. Pier cap The topmost horizontal portion of a pier. It spreads the loads from the superstructure out to the upright parts of the pier. Its whole top surface is the seat that the bearings rest on.
  4. Footing The enlarged lower portion of a substructure. It spreads the load onto the earth or, as drawn here, onto supporting piles. The most common footing is a concrete slab. Footer is the everyday word, and the quiz also takes foundation.
  5. Piles Shaft-like members that carry loads down to underlying rock or soil layers. Piles are typically driven into place. Common types are timber, steel H-piles, steel pipe and prestressed concrete.
  6. Wingwall The retaining-wall extension of an abutment. It restrains the side slope of the approach embankment and holds that earth in place.

Close-up: where the beam meets the bank 5

  1. Approach slab A reinforced concrete slab laid on the approach embankment. It usually rests on the abutment backwall. It carries wheel loads straight to the abutment, which evens out the bump left when the embankment settles.
  2. Deck joint (expansion joint) Gives the deck room to expand in heat and contract in cold. A gap that allows rotation or horizontal movement between two spans, or between an approach and a span.
  3. Wearing surface (overlay) The topmost layer of material applied to the deck. It gives a smooth ride and protects the deck from traffic and weather. Also called the wearing course or overlay. On a concrete deck it may be asphalt, concrete or a polymer.
  4. Backwall The topmost portion of an abutment, above the bridge seat level. It works mainly as a retaining wall that keeps the earth fill off the beam ends, and it may support the end of the approach slab.
  5. Bridge seat (bearing seat) The top surface of an abutment or pier. The superstructure is placed and supported on it. On an abutment the backwall rises from the back of it. On a pier it is the entire top surface.

Suspension bridge 8

  1. Saddle (cable saddle) A member on the topmost part of a suspension bridge tower. It acts as a bearing surface for the main cable passing over it. The Golden Gate Bridge's main cables rest on its towers in huge steel castings called saddles.
  2. Main span (center span) The distance between the two towers. Suspension bridges are ranked by it. The longest, read in September 2026, is the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge in Turkey, opened in 2022, at 2,023 m (6,637 ft). The Golden Gate Bridge's is 1,280 m (4,200 ft).
  3. Side span Shorter stretch between a tower and the bridge's end on the bank. A suspension bridge typically has two, one at each end of the main span. Each side span of the Golden Gate Bridge is 1,125 ft (343 m) long.
  4. Tower A pier or frame that supports a suspension bridge's main cables. The cables pass the bridge's weight to the towers, which are squeezed in compression and carry it to the ground. The Golden Gate Bridge's stand 746 ft above the water.
  5. Main cable (suspension cable) They hang from tower to tower, anchored at both ends. They work in tension. Two on the Golden Gate Bridge. Each is 36 3/8 inches across and holds 27,572 steel wires.
  6. Suspender (hanger) Connects the main cable to the bridge floor. A vertical wire cable, rod or bar, it passes the deck's load up to the main cable. Also called a hanger. On the Golden Gate Bridge 250 pairs of them hang 50 feet apart.
  7. Stiffening truss Spreads traffic loads evenly among the suspenders and reduces local sagging. A truss built into a suspension bridge. Some bridges use a stiffening girder in its place, such as a shallow box girder.
  8. Anchorage (anchor block) The mass that holds a main cable's end in its correct position. Anchorages are usually set in good rock or built as massive concrete deadweights. Each of the two at the Golden Gate Bridge weighs 60,000 tons.

How this list was compiled: Part names and every detail line were checked, for facts only and with nothing copied, against five pages read on 2026-09-19. (1) Federal Highway Administration, Bridge Inspector's Reference Manual, publication FHWA-NHI-23-024, a U.S. government work: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/nbis/pubs/nhi23024.pdf. Its glossary gave abutment, anchorage, approach, approach slab, backwall, beam, bearing, expansion bearing, elastomeric pad, bridge seat, deck joint, embankment, footing, foundation, girder, parapet, railing, pier, pier cap, pile, pile cap, saddle, simple span, span, end span, stiffening truss, stiffening girder, suspender, tower, wearing surface and wingwall. Its chapters 4, 5 and 6 gave the purpose of the deck, the wearing surface materials, the three basic pier types, the pile types, the list of basic bridge components, the rule that the substructure is everything below the bearings, and tension below and compression above in a simple span. (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_bridge for hangers as the second name for suspenders, saddles on the tower tops, anchorages in rock or as concrete deadweights, cables in tension and towers in compression, ranking by main span, and truss or box girder decks. (3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_suspension_bridge_spans for the record main span: 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, Turkey, opened 2022, 2,023 m (6,637 ft). (4) Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, design and construction statistics: https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/history-research/statistics-data/design-construction-stats/ for the term side span and for every Golden Gate figure used: main span 4,200 ft (1,280 m), side span 1,125 ft (343 m), towers 746 ft above the water, two main cables of 36 3/8 in with 27,572 wires each, 250 pairs of suspender ropes 50 ft apart, saddles, and 60,000 tons per anchorage. (5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_bridge and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge for the beam bridge as the simplest form, held up by an abutment or pier at either end. The Beam bridge article carried an accuracy banner on that date, so no number was taken from it. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-26: A two-span beam bridge with the ground cut away, a close-up slice of its left end, and a suspension bridge, drawn to the layout grid in the art brief Our own geometry; nothing traced or copied; the text sources are listed in this dataset's source. Licence: own work

How it works

This parts of a bridge diagram puts two bridges on one page: a beam bridge over a river, with a close-up of the end where the beam meets the bank, and a suspension bridge. It has 25 numbered parts. Study lists every name. Find it names a part to tap, and Name it lights a ring to name. Print blank makes a worksheet, and Print labelled is its key.

Read the full guide

Beam bridge parts, from the deck down to the piles

The group Beam bridge, side view zooms to 11 parts. Traffic rides on the deck, the deck lies on girders, and the girders rest on an abutment at each bank and a pier in the river. Under the riverbed the pier stands on a footing and piles. The close-up holds 6 more: approach slab, deck joint, wearing surface, backwall, bearing and bridge seat.

Suspension bridge parts, then three groups by job

The group Suspension bridge zooms to the other 8: tower, saddle, main cable, suspender, stiffening truss, anchorage, main span and side span. Three more groups sort all 25 by job: Roadway and deck 6, Beams, cables and spans 7, and Supports and foundations 12. After a round, the big button brings back missed parts.

  • A span is a distance, so its ring sits on an arrowed line. The main span runs from tower to tower, and a side span from a tower to the bank.
  • Abutments stand at the two ends and hold back the earth of the bank. Piers stand in between.
  • The bearing is the small block between girder and bridge seat. It lets the girder end turn and shift as the span grows in heat and shrinks in cold.

Questions and answers

What are the main parts of a bridge?

Begin with the group Start here: 6 main parts, which asks for the deck, girder, bearing, abutment, pier and span. The Federal Highway Administration's inspection manual lists the deck, the superstructure that carries it, the bearings, and the substructure, which is everything below the bearings.

Where do the part names come from?

From the glossary of the Federal Highway Administration's Bridge Inspector's Reference Manual, read on September 19, 2026. Span and cable figures come from the Golden Gate Bridge district's statistics page. This is a study quiz, not a reference for inspecting or designing a bridge.

Does every bridge have all 25 parts?

No. The 8 suspension parts belong to that one type, and a single-span bridge has no pier. A footing can rest straight on firm ground with no piles, which is how the two abutments are drawn. Arch, truss and cable-stayed bridges have parts of their own.

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