New Bridge Construction is Complete!

Hey guys!

Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, last weekend I stared working on the new, everyone friendly Hollinger Hollow Bridge.  This new bridge is 16 feet long, 4 feet wide and has a 1:12 slope so people with wheelchairs or walkers can now tour the Hollow along with everyone else.  

The new bridge construction was similar to the old bridge except this is bigger.  Consequentially, it needed a lot more materials and took me a couple weekends to build.

In the spirit of the Hollinger Hollow blog I thought I'd show you how it was constructed.  As with all the pictures in the blog, click on them for a larger view...

 

 So, here is the basic structure.  You can see the rest of the building materials in this picture as well.  That's 50 2x4's!  What this picture doesn't show is the supports at the front of the ramp.  Well, I guess it kind of does.  You can see one of them in the upper right hand corner of the picture.  You can also see the glue gun on the pile of wood.  That's right folks!  This bridge was glued and screwed.  Can't get any safer than that!

 Once the structure is done it's just a matter of cutting the top surface and gluing and screwing the boards in place.  Running total of liquid nails... 6 tubes.  Running total of decking screws... 9 pounds. 

 Once the first half of the ramp was built I built another one.  Then it was too big to keep working on in the garage (well, too crowded is more like it) so I moved both halves to the patio where I set them back to back and attached them with plates on the outside. This is done so I can take them apart easier for moving and storing.

 For the railing supports I screwed two 2x4's to make a 4x4.  Then I connected them to the deck with 2, 3" lag screws on the outside and a 90 degree plate on the inside.  I made sure to use the most crooked ones for the railing and didn't worry if everything was measure perfectly so I could give it an old, rickety look.

 With the posts in place it was a simple matter of measuring and cutting the top handrail.  

I then added a second, decorative handrail in the middle and topped off the caps of the post with these little skulls.

(In the interest of full disclosure the little skulls are not actually attached but just sitting on the top of the posts.  I'll attach them later.)

So, that is the construction.  I still have to paint it and age it to add to the old, rickety appearance any good haunted graveyard bridge should have. That will probably be shown in a later post.

As it is Monday, I have a few days to figure out what to work on next.  I know I'll need some more fencing and I still need to construct the new exit gate pillars.  As I'm typing this, I'm thinking the pillars are next, but I'll be sure to let you know.

Later.