The Bailey Bridge at East Sixteen Mile Creek, Town of Milton
This Bailey bridge was constructed in the mid-twentieth century. Bailey bridges, as an architectural type, have historical associations with World War II civil engineering innovations in utile, inexpensive, portable and pre-fabricated bridge design. They are considered to be one of the major inventions of the war and one that has been even more successful in peacetime. It is a sectionalized construction that is pinned together and either floated or cantilevered out over a creek or river. The heart of the Bailey system is the ingenious set of precision-made, interchangeable steel components from which all Bailey structures are assembled.
Sir Donald Bailey designed the Bailey bridge in 1940, and by July 1941, production of the Bailey bridge began. By December 1941, the Bailey bridge was in use by the army troops. A total of over 490,000 tons of Bailey bridges was manufactured, representing 320 km of fixed bridges and 64 km of floating bridges.
Contemporary Bailey bridges are still built on-site from a pre-engineered system of ready to assemble steel components. Using standardized and pre-fabricated pieces, Bailey bridges can be built to match a wide range of vehicular bridges. Panels, the primary Bailey component, are pinned together at the job site to make girders of any length. Assembling either a single row of panels or two or three rows side-by-side achieve various girder strengths. Panels may also be stacked in double story height to further increase strength.
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