THE BRIDGE AND THE SKY

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Photos By Carlos A. Mascaro

Ponte Estaiada Octávio Frias de Oliveira, in São Paulo. (14/Aug/2008)

A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns (normally referred to as towers or pylons), with cables supporting the bridge deck. There are two major classes of cable-stayed bridges: In a harp design, the cables are made nearly parallel by attaching cables to various points on the tower(s) so that the height of attachment of each cable on the tower is similar to the distance from the tower along the roadway to its lower attachment. In a fan design, the cables all connect to or pass over the top of the tower(s). Cable-stayed bridges can be dated back to the 1784 design of a timber bridge by German carpenter C.T. Loescher. Many early suspension bridges were of hybrid suspension and cable-stayed construction, including the 1817 footbridge at Dryburgh Abbey, and the later Albert Bridge (1872) and Brooklyn Bridge (1883). (Wikipedia)



Who was Octavio Frias de Oliveira (August 5, 1912–29 April 2007). He was a Brazilian executive who built Grupo Folha, one of Brazil's largest media empires. Frias founded Grupo Folha in 1962 with his business partner Carlos Caldeira Filho. They own or control newspapers Folha de São Paulo (Newspaper), Agora, and Valor Econômico, publisher Publifolha, distributor Transfolha, and Brazil’s biggest online portal, Universo Online (Internet).