the.com/trestle
the skeleton that lets trains walk on air across valleys they'd rather not touch
means A frame, typically a horizontal beam supported by two pairs of splayed legs, used to hold up a tabletop, bridge span, or other structure.
from From Old French 'trestel' or 'tresteau,' a small beam or support, which traces back to Latin 'transtillum,' a diminutive of 'transtrum' — a crossbeam or the rowing bench of a ship. So the word carries an old sense of something laid across, a horizontal thing braced by what stands beneath it.
- origin
- named after carpentry sawhorses they resemble
- material
- early ones were entirely timber, fire-prone giants
- design
- open frames let wind pass instead of pushing
- goldfish point
- Kinzua trestle once stood 301 feet tall
- fate
- a 2003 tornado collapsed Kinzua in seconds
for instance
forth bridge — scottish cantilever trestle bridge, opened 1890, 2.7 km long
kinzua viaduct — pennsylvania steel trestle, 301 feet high, built 1882, collapsed 2003