[Aztlan] Suspension Bridges of the Americas

[Jorge Pérez de Lara]

Listeros,

As much as one likes to think that the civilization which is the object 
of our studies (in this case, the Maya) developed independently the 
concept of large suspension bridges, I feel one should be cautios about 
the drawing of any conclusions: a possible Usumacinta suspension bridge 
at Yaxchilán is merely a plausible idea for which, alas!, very little 
actual evidence exists. The fact that something is possible does not 
necessarily prove that that something ever existed. The fact that there 
were no attestations of suspension bridges of any substance among the 
Maya (or, indeed, Mesoamerica) by the Spaniards should give one pause 
before promoting an idea to reality.

Jorge Perez de Lara
 


Elaine Day Schele wrote:

>Thank you Michael, for that fascinating article on the Inca bridges and the experimental archaeology being conducted by the scholars of MIT.  My best wishes for a successful outcome.  Looks like a swinging time is in store for all <grin>.
>
>I have what I think is a correction to the writer's statement of suspension bridges where he writes "The Inca were the only ancient American civilization to develop suspension bridges." 
>
>There is also evidence that the Maya also used suspension bridges, although not across canyons, but across the Usumacinta at Yaxchilan (perhaps other places yet unknown), which means that it was a combination of rope suspension and pier suspension.  See the following article where engineer was applied to archaeology to come up with a computer model. http://gtalumni.org/news/ttopics/win97/bridge.html.  
>
>For the Maya, ropes and cords were symbolic of the "sky umbilicus", and the bridge may also have had spiritual meaning in addition to economic importance.
>
>Elaine
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