Talk:Bridge/GA1

Comments

• Overall, the standard of the article is high.
• It is relatively long for a GA, with 8,564 words of readable prose.
• The lead is appropriately long at 361 words.
• Authorship is 90.4% from the nominator with contributions from 173 other editors.
• It is currently assessed as a C class article, but Rater predicts a B class or higher at 97.5%.
• There are some duplicate links, including abutment, aqueduct, arch bridge, beam bridge, box girder, bridge bearing, Brooklyn Bridge, cable-stayed bridge, cantilever bridge, causeway, cofferdam, compression, elasticity, foundation, Golden Gate Bridge, mathematical model, Old London Bridge, pier, piling, Ponte Vecchio, prestressed concrete, suspension bridge, swing bridge, tension, thermal expansion, trestle bridge, truss bridge.
• Embankment leads to a disambiguation page.
• Check that first instances are linked. These include arch bridge, truss bridge, and viaduct, but there are probably more.
• Please check the math. For example, "Trusses typically have a span-to-depth ratio (the width of a structure divided by its height) of about 10 to 16, compared to beam bridges which typically have a ratio of about 20 to 30." A ratio of 20:30 is 10:15, which is very close to 10:16.
• Images are placed unevenly which risks MOS:SANDWICH depending on screen size. Suggest making all images align right.
• Fixed dimensions on images also risks format problems with different screen sizes.

Criteria

The six good article criteria:

1. It is reasonable well written.

   the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct;

   • The writing is clear and appropriate.
   • Add a subject to "but may also accommodate pipelines, utility lines, buildings, wildlife crossings, and even canals". Suggest it is a pronoun "it".
   • Suggest removing the superfluous colons in "The principal styles include: arch, truss, beam, cantilever, suspension, and cable-stayed" and "Less common forms include: moveable bridges, double deck bridges, pontoon bridges, and military bridges."
   • Suggest adding a comma after "emphasis on science and engineering".
   • Suggest refining "The abundance of inexpensive lumber in Canada and the United States caused timber bridges to be the most common type of bridge in those countries from the late 1700s to the late 1800s."
   • Consider the superfluity in "finite element analysis analysis method".
   • The hyphens around "which are critical elements of bridge construction", "who designed arches that were flatter than semi-circular Roman arches", "which used cable-stays as the exclusive means of support", "two or more large cables, passing", "two or more large cables, passing", "such as the King Fahd Causeway in Saudi Arabia", "capable of supporting 60 ton loads" and other similar instances and before "who designed arches that were flatter than semi-circular Roman arches" could be commas. This is often a construct used by LLMs in 2025.
   • Consider rewording "One example across a small valley at Jerwan was 280 meters (920 ft) long and 20 meters (66 ft) wide, and utilized five corbelled arches."
   • Check the possessive "Roman's".
   • The comma in "Andes mountains of South America, prior to European colonization" is superfluous.
   • Suggest adding a comma before "who designed arches that were flatter than semi-circular Roman arches".
   • Correct the verb in "iron or steel are".
   • Correct "used in a canal system to carry a boats"
   • The sentence "Bridges can be categorized by their structure (arch, truss, beam, suspension, etc) and their materials (stone, wood, iron, steel, concrete, etc)." seems out of place In the text. Suggest this section be rewritten for flow.
   • Suggest using "and" rather than "as well as" in "arch, cable-stayed, as well as cantilever bridges"
   • Suggest removing the comma in "two or more large cables, passing"
   • Consider rewording "A trestle is a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced supports, typically carrying a railway."
   • Consider rephrasing "as a mechanism to implement a moveable swing bridge in a canal were boat traffic needs to pass by."
   • Reword "Portable military bridges are an important type of equipment in the field of military engineering, and perform a variety of wartime roles, such as quickly erecting bridges in the midst of battle, and assembling large bridges behind front lines to facilitate resupply."
   • Remove the commas after "rest on pontoon floats", "more expensive than box girder bridges", "as they are added", "tubes inside each deck section", "eliminates the need for paint", "placing a cofferdam around the footings" and other examples there may be.
   • Correct the grammar in "both steel or concrete".
   • Consider the semicolon after "hoisted into place with a gantry".
   • Correct "with construction of with the towers".
   • Suggest putting commas around "such as permeability and resistance".
   • Consider rewording "measure deflections in bridge elements when test loads are placed in certain points".

   it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead, layout and word choice.

   • There are many short paragraphs (particularly in the section Long, multi-span bridges).
   • Suggest either combining the sections on the different bridge types into paragraphs in one section with the template main link to the List of bridge types and/or adding the main template to the top of each paragraph as it is in the section Movable bridge in the current page.
   • The section Double-deck bridge has a main article link to List of multi-level bridges.

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   it contains a reference section, presented in accordance with the layout style guideline;

   • A reference section is included, with sources listed.

   all inline citations are from reliable sources;

   • Sources are mainly books and peer-reviewed journals published by reputable publishers.

   it contains no original research;

   • All relevant statements have inline citations.
   • Spot checks:
     • 4 confirms that timber pilings were used in Switzerland but coffer dam predate this.
     • 8 states cantilever bridges are found in China, Tibet, Bhutan and Japan.
     • 30 states it was the first steel wire suspension bridge.
     • Please check the remaining sources before I undertake more spot checks.

   it contains no copyright violations nor plagiarism;

   • Earwig gives a 14.5% chance of copyright violation, which means it is unlikely. The highest overlap is with proper nouns in a article on the Golden Gate bridge and titles in a conference paper at the 6th European Conference on Computational Mechanics (ECCM 6) & 7th European Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics (ECFD 7). This are not a concern.

3. It is broad in its coverage

   it addresses the main aspects of the topic.

   • The article covers the history, main types, design, construction, use and social impact of bridges.
   • Suggest restructuring the article to show the flow more easily. For example, some of the history of pontoon bridges is included in the section on pontoon rather than history.
   • Please take a look at phrases like "The greatest bridge builders of antiquity were the ancient Romans" and "Ancient China has a long history of bridge construction, including cantilever bridges[8] and large timber bridges, built during the Warring States period" which seem overgeneralising. Suggest replacing them with more specific verified claims.
   • There are some areas where examples could be given, such as "The first wildlife crossings were built in the 1950s, and these types of bridges are now used worldwide to protect both large and small wildlife."
   • I believe that the restaurant on the Will Rogers Archway over the Oklahoma Turnpike was the first highway service station. Please confirm and if so add that from a verified source.
   • Sometimes the article goes into high levels of detail. For example, "Bearings can be selected to permit small rotational or slipping movements in a specific direction, without permitting movements in other directions."

   it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).

   • There are some self-evident sentences that could be either removed or expanded. For example "Following the invention of railways, many rail bridges were built"

4. It has a neutral point of view.

   it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to different points of view.

   • The article is Eurocentric. The history section is split into the three stages, antiquity, middle ages and modern era. Suggest restructuring the sections to better globalise the narrative.
   • The majority of examples are also European (e.g. in the list of moveable bridges, 80% are from Europe, of double deck bridges, 60%, all the signature bridges listed are US or European). There are a small number like the Brooklyn Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Old London Bridge, and the Ponte Vecchio (plus Clifton Suspension Bridge if captions are included) that are repeated. Suggest replacing these and adding more examples from Africa and southeast Asia, which are currently unrepresented.
   • There are also some sentences that are specific and are present as general statements. For example, "Construction of all bridge types begins by creating the substructure. The first elements built are the footings and abutments, which are large blocks of reinforced concrete, entirely or partially buried underground, which support the entire weight of the bridge, and transfer the weight to the subsoil." Not all bridges use reinforced concrete.

5. It is stable.

   it does not change significantly from day to day because of any ongoing edit war or content dispute.

   • There is no evidence of edit wars.

6. It is illustrated by images and other media, where possible and appropriate.

   images are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content;

   • The infobox image has an appropriate Gnu license tag.
   • Akashi Bridge.JPG has both PD and CC licenses.
   • Reinforcing Steel for Stem Wall at South Abutment (September 12, 2016) (29075882214).jpg, DallasHighFiveSegmentalBridge.jpg, Selena3.jpg, Francis Scott Key Bridge and Cargo Ship Dali NTSB view (cropped).jpg, FEMA - 16965 - Photograph by John Fleck taken on 10-04-2005 in Mississippi.jpg, and BridgeOfSanLuisRey.JPG have valid PD licenses.
   • The remaining images have CC licenses.

   images are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.

   • There is a tag saying that the article is at high risk for accruing too many images. Suggest culling but retaining the Featured images.

@Noleander: Thank you for an interesting article. Overall, I feel it needs a general overhaul before it meets the GA criteria. Please ping me when you would like me to explain anything more, if you would like to withdraw so that you have more time to look into it or when you are ready for me to take a second look. simongraham (talk) 21:25, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

@Simongraham Thanks for the useful suggestions. It may take me awhile to resolve them, so I'll go ahead and withdraw this and re-submit in the future. You can close it, or I can, whichever you prefer. Noleander (talk) 21:39, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

@Noleander: No problem. Please withdraw it and ping me when you are ready to renominate. I would be honored to review this for you. simongraham (talk) 21:47, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

@Simongraham - I read the GA instructions, and they say I'm not permitted to withrdraw it once the review has begun: Withdrawing: To withdraw a nomination before the review has begun, remove the GA nominee template from the article talk page. To withdraw a nomination after the review has begun, let the reviewer know; the reviewer will then fail the nomination. So, go ahead and fail it. Noleander (talk) 22:20, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

@Noleander: Will do. It is procedural. Please do not see this as a failure. simongraham (talk) 22:26, 2 October 2025 (UTC)