Historically, the term '''counter-arch''' was used in architecture to describe multiple types of arches that provide opposing action:{{sfn | Murray |1893 | p=1061}}{{sfn|Hodgson|1996|p=289}} thumb|A diagram of the Moseley bridge design. Counter-arches are designated by t's * an inverted arch used opposite of a regular one. For example, an inverted arch in an open spandrel or in "Moseley bridges", a popular American Civil War-era design by Thomas William Moseley, where the counter-arches were intended as a low-cost alternative to diagonal bracing;{{sfn | Trautwine | 1874 | p=289 | loc=Moseley Bridge}} * any relieving arch; * outer "rings" of compound arches overlaying the one forming the intrados, used in old English bridges since medieval times, are called "counter-arches"{{sfn | Ruddock | 1979 | p=81}} following the works of John Smeaton; * an arch that is built adjacent to another arch to oppose its forces or help stabilize it.<ref>"counter arch." McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003. Answers.com, 7 September 2008.</ref> The counter-arch can be used, for example, when constructing the flying buttress,{{sfn|Curl|2006|p=207}} * buttressing arches built between the opposing building facades over narrow streets of old cities;{{sfn | Niglio | Ulivieri | 2018 | p=21}}{{sfn | Lima | Correia | Gomes | Carlos | 2015 | p=238}} * in fortification, an arch built on the tops of counterforts behind the bastion walls intended to limit the scope of the potential wall breaching;{{sfn | Royal Military College | 1852 | p=46}} * when a pier of the Old Westminster Bridge started sinking during the construction, Charles Labelye was forced to retrofit the bridge with open spandrels using the counter-arches springing off haunches of the two adjacent arches of the bridge thus relieving the pier.{{sfn | Ruddock | 2017 | p=165}}
<gallery> Image:Enneus-heermabrug.jpg|The Enneüs Heerma Bridge showing the inverted counter arch in the middle<ref name="Grimshaw">{{cite web |last1=Derwig |first1=Jan |title=Ijburg Bridge 1 Amsterdam, Netherlands |url=https://grimshaw.global/projects/ijburg-bridge/ |website=grimshaw.global |access-date=8 November 2021}}</ref> File:Die Votivkirche in Wien; Denkschrift des Baucomit'es veröffentlicht zur Feier der Einweihung am 24. April 1879 (1879) (14597612677).jpg|Drawing of a Neo-Gothic flying buttress for the late 19th-century Votive Church, Vienna File:Arches in the Old Town - panoramio.jpg|Buttressing counter-arches in Bonifacio, Corsica File:Counter-arched revetment.jpg|Counter-arched wall of a bastion (the voids are usually filled) File:Old Westminster Bridge, open spandrel.png|Old Westminster Bridge, with open spandrel File:Engraving of Old Ouse Bridge.jpeg|An old Ouse Bridge, York with middle arch using three rings (two "counter-arches"){{sfn | Ruddock | 1979 | p=85}} </gallery>
==See also== * Arcade (architecture) * Flying arch * Strainer arch
==References== {{reflist}}
== Sources == * {{cite encyclopedia |last=Curl |first=James Stevens |title=A Dictionary of Architecture |entry=counter-arch |encyclopedia=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture | edition = 2nd| isbn=978-0-19-860678-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jIWr0IO9dYIC&pg=PA207 | access-date=2024-01-03 | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = 2006}} * {{cite book | last=Murray | first=J.A.H. | title=A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: part 1. C-Comm (1893) | publisher=Clarendon Press | year=1893 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WxyIUTOenmsC&pg=PA1061 | access-date=2024-07-05 | chapter = Counter-arch }} * {{cite book | last=Trautwine | first=J.C. | title=The Civil Engineer's Pocket-book: Of Mensuration, Trigonometry, Surveying, Hydraulics ... Etc. ... | publisher=Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger | year=1874 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9i0JAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA289 | access-date=2024-07-05 | chapter=The Moseley Bridge}} * {{cite thesis |last1=Hodgson |first1=John A. |title=The Behaviour of Skewed Masonry Arch Bridges |date=1996 |url=https://salford-repository.worktribe.com/preview/1497884/5603013901.pdf |publisher=University of Salford | degree=PhD}} * {{cite book | last=Ruddock | first=T. | title=Arch Bridges and Their Builders 1735-1835 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1979 | isbn=978-0-521-21816-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=amQ9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA81 | access-date=2024-07-05}} * {{cite book | last1=Niglio | first1=Olimpia | last2=Ulivieri | first2=Denise | title=Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions - 2 Volume Set: Possibilities of Numerical and Experimental Techniques - Proceedings of the IVth Int. Seminar on Structural Analysis of Historical Constructions, 10-13 November 2004, Padova, Italy | publisher=CRC Press | year=2018 | isbn=978-0-429-62100-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FWC1DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA210 | access-date=2024-07-05 | chapter = Vernacular architecture and “historical seismography”: an experience research | chapter-url = https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144215803.pdf}} * {{cite book | last1=Lima | first1=A | last2=Correia | first2=M | last3=Gomes | first3=F | last4=Carlos | first4=G | last5=Viana | first5=D | last6=Lourenço | first6=P | last7=Varum | first7=H | title=Seismic Retrofitting: Learning from Vernacular Architecture | chapter=Systematisation of seismic retrofitting in vernacular architecture | publisher=CRC Press | date=2015-09-08 | isbn=978-1-138-02892-0 | doi=10.1201/b18856-49 | pages=235–239 | doi-broken-date=11 July 2025 | chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299866981}} * {{cite book | last=Royal Military College | first=Sandhurst | title=Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Fortification, Military Tactics, and Perspective: With the Attack and Defence of Fortresses | publisher=Spottiswoodes and Shaw | year=1852 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LM1CAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA46 | access-date=2024-07-05}} * {{cite book | last=Ruddock | first=E.C. | title=Masonry Bridges, Viaducts and Aqueducts | publisher=Taylor & Francis | series=Studies in the History of Civil Engineering | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-351-91928-9 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ulsPEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA165 | access-date=2024-07-06 | chapter=Hollow Spandrels in Arch Bridges}}
Category:Arches and vaults Counter-arch