'Golden Gate Bridge' photo (c) 2007, Salim Virji - license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

I used a bridge-building project pretty effectively with English Language Learners.

First, students have seen pictures of bridges and written and spoken about them (of course, prior to that I’ve pre-taught some vocabulary)

Next, depending on their English level, they’ve used online interactives to build virtual ones.

Then, again depending on their English level, they created their own model bridges as a science experiment.

I’ve used this three step approach to organize the resources on this list.

(by the way, you might also be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About The Golden Gate Bridge)

Here are my choices for The Best Images Of Spectacular Bridges (& How Students Can Make Their Own):

IMAGES:

10 Most Beautiful Bridges in the World

Beautiful Bridges Around the World


12 of the Most Beautiful Bridges in Europe

Best Bridges: The Most Amazing Engineering EVER

The World’s Most Beautiful Bridges is a nice photo collection of…bridges.

China opens world’s longest sea bridge is the title of a video and pretty spectacular video at The Telegraph. The Atlantic also has some photos.

The longest, tallest and oldest bridges in the world is a slideshow from The Telegraph.

Photo Essay: China’s Marathon-Length Bridge is from the PBS News Hour.

Breathtaking images of the living bridges of India is from The Mother Nature Network.

ONLINE INTERACTIVES:

The Bridge Challenge

Build A Bridge

MAKING A BRIDGE:

I’ve had students make bridges in two ways.

I’ve had higher level English students make bridges out of toothpicks. You can see lesson plans here and here.

With my Beginners, I’ve used a much simpler activity using a sheet of paper and an egg carton. You can find that lesson plan here.

Structures Around The World is a joint project of three international museums, including the Exploratorium. The website provides simple instructions for how students can create models of different structures, including bridges.

New Addition:

Building Bridges Of Hope is a very interesting article from Parade Magazine. It’s about Bridges to Prosperity, a nonprofit that constructs and repairs bridges in Asia, Africa, and South America. It doesn’t quite fit into this list, but I’m adding it here anyway. It would be a nice supplement to any unit on bridges.

Unusual Bridges For Animals – Wildlife Overpasses is a photo gallery from The World Geography.

Eight of the world’s most stunning bridges is from The BBC.

21 of the world’s most spectacular bridges is from The Telegraph.

Feedback is always welcome.

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You might also want to explore the 400 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.