A Garden Bridge over Garden Waters
by Rod Bird

Wooden bridges have been used for many centuries for things such as draw bridges, for spanning crevices, over creeks, ponds, gulleys and in fact anywhere to cross over low areas such as valleys, dips and depressions as well as water of course.

Japan started making wooden arch bridges many decades ago to beautify and maintain Koi ponds and water gardens ... I'm sure you have all seen those appealing pictures of Japanese gardens all of which incorporate a wooden span bridge .Other parts of the world caught on during the last 20 years or so.

The wooden arch bridge is usually made of cedar, pine, douglas fir and a few places use the more durable and weather, insect and water resistant California Redwood. We use only 100% California Redwood Or Western Red Cedar to build our Garden Bridges to assure many years of use and beauty. When looking for a Pond or Garden bridge, you should know exactly how long the bridge will span. Some bridge builders sell an 8 ft bridge but it will actually only span about 6 1/2 ft.

You should also make sure the bridge is made of weather and water resistant wood or sealed and stained, along with stainless steel hardware such as bolts, washer, nuts and screws. We use only stainless steel or galvanized hardware in all our bridges and on all our bridges we measure the span length that it will span and not the arch length.

You should try to find a bridge that is very easily assembled and only a few tools required. We number and label each board, each post and rail and you just match the numbers and put in the screws and tighten. It takes an average of 30 minutes to assemble our bridges.

Down through the ages the wooden arch bridge has brought joy, beauty and comfort to pond owners, homeowners, farmers, landscapers and many others who have an area that needs to be easily accessed. We would be happy to build you a bridge of modern design or one styled from the early designers.

Please contact us at www.redwoodbridges.com.