ABSTRACT
The concentration and diversity of traditional suspension bridges in the eastern part of the Tibetan massif, places the focus of origin of this type in the Old World somewhere in this region. The suspension bridge may well have descended from the practice of attaching cords to arrows so that both prey and arrow might be recovered. The forms of primitive catenary cable bridges of the eastern Himalayas illustrate the development of the suspension bridge from the simplest form of all, that of the single suspended cable. Aerodynamic instability was a serious problem, and the early Himalayan bridges swayed wildly in strong winds. The suspension bridge may well have descended from the practice of attaching cords to arrows so that both prey and arrow might be recovered. Faustus Verantius's sketches of a portable rope suspension bridge and a metal-stayed bridge anticipated the modern suspension and the cable-stayed bridge.
