Movie Bridge Over The River Kwai

Cards-N-Time: Bridges

Disasters

The night of May 26, 2002 a 580-foot section of  the bridge on I-40 near Webbers Falls, Oklahoma collapsed into the Arkansas River causing vehicles to plunge into inky space at 70 mph-killing 14  motorists. A tugboat captain blacked out causing the barge he was controlling to collide with the bridge support. Twenty thousand vehicles a day were re-routed daily for two months while the bridge was repaired. During the evening rush hour August 1, 2007 an eight-lane bridge over the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 people. For thirteen months 140,000 vehicles a day were re-routed during its replacement. Ordinarily we take bridges for granted, and it takes such deadly yoo-hoo-hoo experiences to remind us just how important bridges are to our convenience and safety.  

Mechanics

Bridges span gaps, and the greater the gap spanned the stronger the design and material required. Stepping stones and fallen trees were probably the earliest bridges. The first bridges constructed by modern engineers were simple steel beams resting on piers. Because of the weight of the beam, they are generally 250 feet or less.

Merely changing the shape of materials increases their load-bearing strength—thereby increasing the length or ‘span’ of the bridge. Take a piece of cardboard and place it across the gap between two books as in a beam-type bridge. It supports little weight as a beam. Bend the cardboard into an arch, and it will support a book on top. Roman  multiple-arch bridges [aqueducts] carried water within and road traffic on top.   

Fold cardboard and turn it sideways, and it can support two books. Steel beams configured in X and N-shapes create equilateral and isosceles-shaped spaces that strengthen—and thus lengthen—spans. If  the piers holding the truss are heightened considerably and a cables attached at their tops bridges can be held up by ‘suspenders’ from the cable to the roadway creates a ‘suspension’ bridge like the Brooklyn bridge. The easiest way to envision a ‘cantilever’ bridge is to see the Firth of Forth Bridge in Scotland.  You can locate the point of greatest stress on a bridge by finding where engineers have placed the most structural supports like piers, cables, trusses, etc.  

Engineers also have to take into account how we humans handle bridges. The steel deck of the mile-long Straits of Mackinac Bridge in Michigan is porous, giving drivers a terrifying view of water 150 feet below. Bridge employees are available to drive cars for frightened drivers. Some bridges have side walls to block the view. The 8-mile long Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island with mainland Canada is S-shaped so drivers won’t become sleepy driving in a straight line such a distance.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): An enthralling, perfect ...

Camp (Camp number 16). Problem arises when a new team of prisoners joins the camp under the control of Colonel Nicholson. Colonel Nicholson refuses to let his prisoners and officers to work on the railway bridge over the river Kwai. His conditions clashes with Colonel Saito’s.  Saito agrees with Nicholson’s rules inorder to finish the work on time. Nicholson feels this as the best time to prove the efficiency of British, and starts building the bridge. Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman did few minor changes from Pierre Boulle’s novel to give a cinematic feel and done an excellent work by hackling with dialogs that makes the characters very authentic and comprehensible. Dazzling is the word to illustrate the excellence of work they done in making this spectacular film. Let it be script or direction or performance or cinematography or the background music, it’s all top class, from the opening frame to its very stunning climax. You get totally enchanted by the narration. The movie never looks dated even after so many years. The story of the prisoner camp and the building of the bridge is presented in the best captivating, striking and highly controlled way. It also productively shows how bravery and strength of mind can in fact create respect. The acting here is outstanding. Guinness’s performance is of marvelous control and self-respect. He brings a memorable visual rendering of a classic British military head. His character is firm, instructive and tranquil in his obedience to the book. Hayakawa also is firmly imposing as the strict bold Japanese commander, as a character mixed of nastiness and rightness developed out of a life span of exercise and the urgent necessitate to pacify his superior officers. And there is Holden with another great performance, in a very important character of the story. Overall: The movie is a timeless classic because the film will easily reach viewers heart in different ways with different people. It has many magnitudes - all very commanding. It is one such work which the term ‘masterpiece’ is entirely valid. This is purely an astonishing and compelling antiwar film. The emotional intricacies in the film make it truly great. The Cine Segye is a legal website containing previews, reviews and lyrics of major movies from around the globe. The videos/trailers containing in our websites are only links to other sites such as youtube.com. We do not publish any videos on our own.

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