The Town truss was a lattice of sawn planks that eliminated the need for an arch or large hewn timbers. Rather than having notched joints, the lattice intersections were fastened with large wooden pegs, or treenails (trunnels). The truss functioned as a series of overlapping triangles, so that the load in any one triangle affected distribution of stress in all other triangles. The web members could handle both tension and compression and spread loads over a wide area.
Ithiel Town built only a few bridges himself, but used this same type of truss in the roofs of several important buildings he designed, and he received royalties of a dollar per foot of truss from bridge builders who used his patent. Town lattice truss bridges were built in large numbers in New England, New York and the South throughout the nineteenth century. Researched and written by Lola Bennett, Summer 2002 - NPS
Last Name | Name | AsNotedIn |
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Town: | Ithiel Town |
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