Welcome back to another exiting blog where we go into the details of building a suspension bridge (for relatively cheap).
Step 4: Start Buildin’ (cont)
4.1) Measure out where your holes are gonna go – using the super accurate method of using strings.
4.2) Dig your holes. I’m so sorry but I lost the footage of me using the auger to drill the holes – but you’ll just have to imagine it looking really funny because the auger is like half my size. I drilled 4 huge holes I could fit my entire body in successfully though.
4.3) Throw your fence posts…. errr.. support beams in there and fill it with concrete. (I mixed all my concrete using a 5 gallon bucket and a drill with a mixer attachment)
Wow! Amazing!
4.4) Carry a few bags of cement, and a post, across the river and do the same thing on the other side. Set up a temporary zipline to transfer the rest of your 60lb cement bags across the river.
4.5) Next, you’ll want to dig 4 more huge holes (about 10″ wide and 6ft deep), about 6-8ft behind our support beams, these will be filled with a lot of cement with rods embedded which will then act as the anchor points for our suspension cables. Once the cement cures, the fun part of rigging up the cables begins!
4.6) Start laying your planks! I attached the planks to the suspension wire via stainless steel hanger straps from underneath.
Once you lay enough planks to reach the other end, you’re done!
Overall, the entire process from start to finish took about 5 days to build and less than $2,000 worth of materials and supplies. I should note that the bridge is not completely finished in the picture above, as I still have to add cables that connect the railing cables to the support cables underneath. However, this doesn’t really affect the function of the bridge; it just adds an extra layer of safety. That’s all I have to this bridge building series. See you next time!