Garrett Boon 
Boy does this bridge bring back memories. I built this bridge in 2001, in the 7th grade. It was my first attempt at building a bridge on my own after building this bridge with my partner. I had wanted to make an arch bridge, much like the Booth Bridge, but I didn’t have the building … Read more
I was never able to fully develop and use this bridge. I got this idea from talking with a Science Olympiad coach in Ohio. Now I wish I had gone ahead and put more work into this. The next year, the bridge rules changed so that I could not use this concept. The trick was … Read more
Chamblee has always done well in Bridge Building. In 2001, they won the State finals in this event. This bridge is from the 2003 GA State Tournament, the same tournament the Booth Bridge is from.
Yes, this is one of the coolest bridges I have ever seen. Built by J.C. Booth Middle for the Science Olympiad Georgia State Finals in 2003, it placed 3rd. For those of you who don’t know Booth, keep reading. Booth Middle School has won the Georgia State Finals as a team for longer than I … Read more
Now that the 2007 Science Olympiad season is well over, I am releasing photos of a concept boomilever I made before regionals. Here is a video of the testing of the boomilever: The boomilever broke because of all the force that was applied outwards on the bottom chords. The boomilever simply “split” apart and the … Read more
Objective: To build a boomilever with the greatest efficiency. There are two basic types of boomilevers. First is the tension boomilever, where the tension chord is longer than the compression chord. Second there is the compression boomilever, which is the opposite of the tension. It is generally accepted that the tension…
The 2007 contest is over, check back next year for another chance to win! Here is the Local Contest’s winning bridge: This is not the winning design for the worldwide contest, just the GarrettsBridges.com local contest. Congratulations to Big Jake who submitted the design and won $100.
I just found some old photos of my first ever Science Olympiad bridge from 2000. The bridge weighed 58 grams if my memory serves me well. It held the entire 15kg with ease. It probably could have held 100lbs because it was so overbuilt. This was at my first every Science Olympiad competition at Gordon … Read more
Lateral what, you ask? If you don’t know what this is, you aren’t alone. In fact, it took me quite a while to understand how important lateral bracing is to the success of a model bridge, especially when striving for high strength or efficiency. Definition of lateral bracing Lateral bracing is the term we use to … Read more
Some friends of mine recently took a road trip to to PA. On the way, they stopped by a famous bridge and took this awesome picture: This is the New River Bridge in West Virginia. It was the longest single-arch steel span bridge when it was built in 1977. In 2003, however, a longer single … Read more