rion bridge 9cable stayed bridge0 in greece

huangyhg

rion bridge (cable stayed bridge) in greece
the following is the web link for rion cable stayed bridge.
if the deck was attached to the pylons, and there was an earthquake, there'd be an enforced displacement on the deck which woould probably fracture it.
if the deck is isolated from the pylons, being supported by cables attched to the pylons, then the enforced displacement effects will be mitigated (by the elastic strain energy of the cables).
rb1957 is right. the deck is 2.2 kilometers long, so it 'floats over the 4 intermediate support towers rather than bein supported on them. what that allows is that during an earthquake, the whole deck is allowed to move around, both transversally and longitudinally. longitudinaly, the different inclination of the cables will damper the movement. transversally, there are 4 x 3600kn elastoplastic dampers per pier which will achieve the same effect. if i re  
i imagine the drape of the cables from the center of the tower to the side of the deck acts like bicycle spokes providing some lateral resistance to minimise drift.
otherwise you would just get a pendulum effect.
"otherwise you would just get a pendulum effect"
hence the lateral dampers