Schematic Diagrams and how bridge failed

We tried to create a thorough Warren Truss design because we felt that it would effciently distribute the forces. Although, our orginal design was the Warren truss design, our bridge broke a few days before, so we had to alter our plans. We tried to create a bridge that had a lot of support in the bottom. We placed large columns beneath the bridges and tiny columns on parts of the bridge that would be most vunerable. We thought that it would have enough tension and compression fo r it to work. Our bridge appeared durable, but lacked the design qualities that would have made it take more weight.

Reasoning for our Design:

Why our bridge failed?

The point of failure on our bridge was the centerpoint, where the wooden block with the hook to hold that weight was located. You can see in the before photo on the Home page that bridge was slowly breaking when it was placed on the platform. You can see the bend in the bridge that eventually led to it breaking in half. The compression on our bridge was the opposing ends on the top part of the bridge. The tension was the bottom part of the bridge. We believed that we had too much compression that caused the bridge to crumble in the middle. We didn't have enough tension to even each other out and help hold more weight. We tried to do the Warren truss design as seen in the picture above. However, our bridge broke and it caused us to not have the correct structure in place for us to put the triangles on the edge of the pathway on the bridge.