BRIDGE, FRANK

born Feb. 26, 1879, Brighton, Sussex, Eng. died Jan. 10, 1941, Eastbourne, Sussex English composer, viola player, and conductor, one of the most accomplished musicians of his day, known especially for his chamber music and songs. Bridge studied violin at the Royal College of Music, London, but changed to viola, becoming a virtuoso player. After a period in the Joachim Quartet (1906) he played with the English String Quartet until 1915. He also held various positions as a conductor, both symphonic and operatic. Although he composed in many genres, he was particularly successful in his smaller forms, such as the Phantasie Quartet for piano and strings (1910), four string quartets, and songs and piano pieces. His early works were Romantic in style; later, while he never abandoned Romanticism, he moved toward atonality. He was widely respected as a teacher, and his pupils included Benjamin Britten. The history of bridge design Modern bridges, the focus of this article, began with the introduction of industrially produced iron. They have evolved over the past 200 years as engineers have come to understand better the new possibilities inherent first in cast iron, then in wrought iron and structural steel, and finally in reinforced and prestressed concrete. These materials have led to bridge designs that have broken completely with the designs in wood or stone that characterized bridges before the Industrial Revolution. Industrial strength has been an important factor in the evolution of bridges. Great Britain, the leading industrialized country of the early 19th century, built the most significant bridges of that time. Likewise, innovations arose in the United States from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century and in Japan and Germany in subsequent decades. Switzerland, with its highly industrialized society, has also been a fertile ground for advances in bridge building. Early wood and stone bridges The ancient world Beam bridges The first bridges were simply supported beams, such as flat stones or tree trunks laid across a stream. For valleys and other wider channelsespecially in East Asia and South America, where examples can still be foundropes made of various grasses and vines tied together were hung in suspension for single-file crossing. Materials were free and abundant, and there were few labour costs, since the work was done by slaves, soldiers, or natives who used the bridges in daily life. Some of the earliest known bridges are called clapper bridges (from Latin claperius, pile of stones). These bridges were built with long, thin slabs of stone to make a beam-type deck and with large rocks or blocklike piles of stones for piers. Postbridge in Devon, England, an early medieval clapper bridge, is an oft-visited example of this old type, which was common in much of the world, especially China.