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[MegaStructureKyle]

Whether it's to amaze your friends, or simply build a sustainable bridge across water, you need to know the basics of bridge-building. I'm not the "Expert", but I have built a variety of bridges in minecraft. My current project is a Brooklyn Bridge style suspension bridge.

I plan to, hopefully every week, give a few tips about bridge building. This weeks topic is "Arch Bridges".


Just to give an example of a small arch bridge I build today,



This bridge connects the mainland to some newly generated land that we plan to use for agriculture and raising bacon  


On to the importants! The arch bridge is pretty self explanatory, It's a bridge.. with an Arch in it. Along with it's curvy looks, it also provides waterway access for boats without having to make awkward mid-air bridges supported by nothing. Off the top of my head, I can think of 3-4 working types of arch bridges using solid material. I layed out a grid that you can use as "blueprints" for building these bridges.

Solid Arch Bridge



This is the exact bridge that is used in my example (Redstone simulator ftw xD) and it's very useful for bridges that need to span a long ways and not be too big. However, if you want to go big...



You can make a 10 block+ bridge in height for deep valleys, but I don't suggest making huge arch bridges for spanning across oceans, due to them being awkwardly out of proportion. (So 1-3 big archs is ok, but not 10) I also suggest making solid-arch bridges out of Cobblestone, Obsidian, Stone, or any other rock-based material due to how it looks.


Open-Structure Arch Bridge



I just made up the name, but it refers to arch bridges that have space between the platform and the arch.

Catthou had asked for what a Open-structure Arch bridge would look like when you skew it for longer distances. This is a grid interpretation of what it would look like. It is exactly 2x the length of the original bridge.



I really suggest making these out of iron (Personally Gold   ) but its really your decision. These bridges are really handy for those that don't have enough blocks for a full solid arch bridge.


Top-Side Arch Bridge



I really like this design, it doesn't yield an arch on the bottom, but instead supports. However, it incorporates an arch on the top making any "simple bridge" look spectacular.



I hope you enjoy this little tutorial/informal post about arch bridges. I really like the way they look. I'll try to bring in as much information about the mega-structure projects in my current SMP server. Leave a comment below about what you want next week's topic to be! (Block saving tips, Suspension bridges, Etc.)


-MegaStructureKyle

[ChaosGuardian]

Can you take another screenshot when it's DAY?! Like really, cmon.

[MegaStructureKyle]

Sorry, I was impatient with the time. Edited the picture.

[nevermore18]

This might actually turn into something really interesting.  I'll keep checking back for any different designs you show =D

[MitchyMonster]

So how much did Notch pay you? You just made me go play Minecraft FOR THE 6TH TIME TODAY!

[Freaking wow]

MitchyMonster said:

So how much did Notch pay you? You just made me go play Minecraft FOR THE 6TH TIME TODAY!

Why would Notch want you to play if you paid for it already?

[catthou]

MegaStructureKyle said:

Open-Structure Arch Bridge

I just made up the name, but it refers to arch bridges that have space between the platform and the arch. I really suggest making these out of iron (Personally Gold   ) but its really your decision. These bridges are really handy for those that don't have enough blocks for a full solid arch bridge.

-MegaStructureKyle

I was trying to make one of these the other day, off of some RL pics, but I could not make it look good. I like your grid of it, though, I wonder how it would look skewed for long distances. It looks fine in real life... D: And I also suggest making it out of iron, since it looks better, and seems more realistic.

[MegaStructureKyle]

catthou said:

I was trying to make one of these the other day, off of some RL pics, but I could not make it look good. I like your grid of it, though, I wonder how it would look skewed for long distances. It looks fine in real life... D: And I also suggest making it out of iron, since it looks better, and seems more realistic.

This is skewed/stretched to 2 times the length of one Open-structure arch bridge. It will be edited into the original post as well.

[MegaStructureKyle]

Well, I'll continue testing some ideas out in the morning (Eastern Time).

[MitchyMonster]

Freaking wow said:

MitchyMonster said:

So how much did Notch pay you? You just made me go play Minecraft FOR THE 6TH TIME TODAY!

Why would Notch want you to play if you paid for it already?

He made me want to go play it more. Which it what Notchs wants. I got bored today, say this and thought "Great Idea! Im gonna go build this" Giving more hours of Gameplay to Notch. Giving me new stories to tell friends about. Making them buy Minecraft.

[BlackMonarch]

Why in God's name would you make a bridge like that when you could instead make one that is supported by nothing but magic?

[MegaStructureKyle]

BlackMonarch said:

Why in God's name would you make a bridge like that when you could instead make one that is supported by nothing but magic?

Bragging Rights, Reputation, Beautiful Server, Community projects, Etc.  

[MustanGrande]

I'd like to share a little technique that I use for plotting out curves in minecraft, since it applies to making good-looking arches.  

I open up Paint Shop Pro (any decent image editing software will do) and create a new, rather small image, depending on the size of the build I'm working on.  

Using a scale of 1 pixel = 1 block, I set a circle-shaped brush to the desired size, and click once.  Setting the eraser brush to the same size, I move into a position 1 pixel beneath the center of the painted circle, and click.  Voila.  You have a pixel-by-pixel representation of the arch you wish to build.  

For elongated arches, you can set the paint brush size to match the intended span of the arch, then set the brush rotation to 90 degrees.  Using the brush thickness slider, you can then adjust the vertical radius of the brush to your taste.

[Rox]

I feel like I have the right to butt in with an old example of my own! A medium sized arch bridge I made a long time ago, including the blueprint I made in Paint. I even drew in the placement of the torches.. I'm super picky about my torches being all symmetrical... The lighter color in the blueprint marks where the half-tiles should start to make a nice ramp.



A fun side effect of leaving the supporting pillars hollow is that the game starts treating them as dangerous caves, and scary noises will play almost every time you walk over the bridge. To solve that, I placed a torch inside each of them. I also left a small hole open at the bottom of one of the pillars so you can swim inside and discover my secret stash...

[xDoomSquirrelx]

I like this.

[Xaostica]

Thanks for posting!

It's hard with a busy schedule to sit down and figure out the finer details in things and this helps!

[MegaStructureKyle]

Rox said:

I feel like I have the right to butt in with an old example of my own! A medium sized arch bridge I made a long time ago, including the blueprint I made in Paint. I even drew in the placement of the torches.. I'm super picky about my torches being all symmetrical... The lighter color in the blueprint marks where the half-tiles should start to make a nice ramp.

I like the bridge, and I love how you used cobblestone. Hey0 quit on us and we frantically made 3 double chests of smooth stone from all of our cobble so we could finish the Parthenon (its HUGE) but i decided to steal a couple stacks. I had to extend an island to meet up with my bridge height because I made it "On ground level" instead of using a ramp. All thats left is to watch the grass grow.          

[bornconfused]

wow dude, this is AMAZING

i specially like how u made the houses out of wool so u cant paint em (flashback to real life)

can i join this server, i can make some pretty rad beds ?

id absolutely LOVE to help out on this oasis

[MegaStructureKyle]

bornconfused said:

wow dude, this is AMAZING

i specially like how u made the houses out of wool so u cant paint em (flashback to real life)

can i join this server, i can make some pretty rad beds ?

id absolutely LOVE to help out on this oasis

.  .  .  .  . Well... The oasis is 3000 blocks away from this bridge. And I'll message you the IP.
But only me and this other person are permitted to build in the oasis.

[Blackwind]

This is a design I made this morning. The really cool thing is it looks good over extended periods and also looks really good with extended supports.