Bridges (City)

As part of our City theme, we're now on the bridges unit, which looks likes it is going to end up being a very big unit. I am hoping to cover the following:
-basic engineering principles of bridge building
-terms: span, abutments, cantilever, girder, truss, abutment, loads, foundation, pier, pile, deck, expansion joint, hanger, spandrel, tension, weld
-types of bridges: beam, arch, suspension, cable-stay
-famous bridges: Quebec City, San Francisco, Japan

We'll be doing:
-hands-on building and experimentation
-identifying bridge type in local bridges
-identifying famous bridges in books, on google earth, and flickr images
-library books

Bridges by Crhis Oxlade, new edition from the Building Amazing Structures series, 2006 (good theory book)
Bridges by Etta Kaner, Kids Can Press, Toronto, 1994 (lots of great hands-on simple bridge experiments)
Bridges go from here to there by Forrest Wilson, Preservation Press, 1993 (basic engineering principles)
Bridges are to cross by Philemon Sturges, G.P. Putman's Sons, 1998 (examples from around the world recreated in paper artistry)

Other sources:
Structurae (database)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge
Building Big: All About Bridges from PBS
Bridges on Flickr

vocabulary: span, truss, beam, cantilever, suspension, arch, tension, compression, bending, torsion, shear, corbel