Leonardo Da Vinci – love him or hate him – is a big part of history. He’s known for his many sketches that some people dub pure genius. Now, students from Eindhoven University of Technology are trying to make another one of his personal ideas a reality.
By building a bridge that Da Vinci thought up in the 1500’s, students are hoping to breathe new life into beautiful architecture. The only difference is that rather that being made out of primitive stone materials as the blueprints call for, the students will be making the bridge out of ice in the middle of Juuka, Finland.
Work on the bridge began on December 28th, and there are about 150 students and volunteers from neighboring countries working on the project with the hopes of having it done mid-February. Temperatures in Juuka, Finland are cold enough to sustain the ice – about -22º Fahrenheit.
Giving the bridge its strength will be paper fiber-infused ice. The addition of the paper fibers gives the ice a structure that is three times stronger and then times tougher than a basic ice bridge would be.
Although the bridge will only be used to carry pedestrians, engineers want the bridge to be strong enough to hold a car, which helps with safety. A car will be passed over the bridge just one time after its construction to test its durability before people are allowed to walk on it.
For reference, here is the original work in Da Vinci’s own notes:
Progress on the bridge, regular status updates, and photographs of the engineering team can be seen regularly on the project's Facebook page.
Would you want to walk on an ice bridge with a design based off of Leonardo Da Vinci?
Source: Eindhoven University of Technology
