A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle, such as a body of water, valley, or road, without closing the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle something that can be detrimental to cross otherwise. There are many different designs that each serve a particular purpose and apply to different situations. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed and anchored, the material used to make it, the funds available to build it. Most the earliest bridges were fallen trees and stepping stones, while Neolithic people built boardwalk bridges across marshland; the Arkadiko Bridge dating from the 13th century BC, in the Peloponnese, in southern Greece is one of the oldest arch bridges still in existence and use. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word bridge to an Old English word brycg, of the same meaning; the word can be traced directly back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēw-.

The word for the card game of the same name has a different origin. The simplest type of a bridge is stepping stones, so this may have been one of the earliest types. Neolithic people built a form of boardwalk across marshes, of which the Sweet Track and the Post Track, are examples from England that are around 6000 years old. Undoubtedly ancient peoples would have used log bridges; some of the first man-made bridges with significant span were intentionally felled trees. Among the oldest timber bridges is the Holzbrücke Rapperswil-Hurden crossing upper Lake Zürich in Switzerland; the first wooden footbridge led across Lake Zürich, followed by several reconstructions at least until the late 2nd century AD, when the Roman Empire built a 6-metre-wide wooden bridge. Between 1358 and 1360, Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, built a'new' wooden bridge across the lake, used to 1878 – measuring 1,450 metres in length and 4 metres wide. On April 6, 2001, the reconstructed wooden footbridge was opened, being the longest wooden bridge in Switzerland.

The Arkadiko Bridge is one of four Mycenaean corbel arch bridges part of a former network of roads, designed to accommodate chariots, between the fort of Tiryns and town of Epidauros in the Peloponnese, in southern Greece. Dating to the Greek Bronze Age, it is one of the oldest arch bridges still in use. Several intact arched stone bridges from the Hellenistic era can be found in the Peloponnese; the greatest bridge builders of antiquity were the ancient Romans. The Romans built arch bridges and aqueducts that could stand in conditions that would damage or destroy earlier designs; some stand today. An example is the Alcántara Bridge, built over the river Tagus, in Spain; the Romans used cement, which reduced the variation of strength found in natural stone. One type of cement, called pozzolana, consisted of water, lime and volcanic rock. Brick and mortar bridges were built after the Roman era. In India, the Arthashastra treatise by Kautilya mentions the construction of bridges. A Mauryan bridge near Girnar was surveyed by James Princep.

The bridge was swept away during a flood, repaired by Puspagupta, the chief architect of emperor Chandragupta I. The use of stronger bridges using plaited bamboo and iron chain was visible in India by about the 4th century. A number of bridges, both for military and commercial purposes, were constructed by the Mughal administration in India. Although large Chinese bridges of wooden construction existed at the time of the Warring States period, the oldest surviving stone bridge in China is the Zhaozhou Bridge, built from 595 to 605 AD during the Sui dynasty; this bridge is historically significant as it is the world's oldest open-spandrel stone segmental arch bridge. European segmental arch bridges date back to at least the Alconétar Bridge, while the enormous Roman era Trajan's Bridge featured open-spandrel segmental arches in wooden construction. Rope bridges, a simple type of suspension bridge, were used by the Inca civilization in the Andes mountains of South America, just prior to European colonization in the 16th century.

During the 18th century there were many innovations in the design of timber bridges by Hans Ulrich Grubenmann, Johannes Grubenmann, others. The first book on bridge engineering was written by Hubert Gautier in 1716. A major breakthrough in bridge technology came with the erection of the Iron Bridge in Shropshire, England in 1779, it used cast iron for the first time as arches to cross the river Severn. With the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, truss systems of wrought iron were developed for larger bridges, but iron does not have the tensile strength to support large loads. With the advent of steel, which has a high tensile strength, much larger bridges were built, many using the ideas of Gustave Eiffel. In Canada and the United States, numerous timber covered bridges were built in the late 1700s to the late 1800s, reminiscent of earlier designs in Germany and Switzerland; some covered bridges were built in Asia. In years, some were made of stone or metal but the trusses were still made of wood.

Hundreds of these structures still stand in North America. They were brought to the attention of the general public in the 1990s by the novel and play The Bridges of Madison County. In 1927 weldin

Meg Mallon is an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1987 and won 18 LPGA Tour events, including four major championships, during her career. Mallon was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017. Mallon was born in Massachusetts, she started playing golf at the age of 7. She won the Michigan Amateur Championship title in 1983, she attended Mercy High School in Michigan. She attended Ohio State University, where she earned All-Conference honors from 1984–85 and was the runner-up at the 1985 Big Ten Championship. Mallon joined the LPGA Tour in 1987, her breakthrough year was 1991. Two of her victories were majors, the Mazda LPGA Championship and the U. S. Women's Open, she was named Female Player of the Year by the Golf Writers Association of America and Most Improved Player by Golf Digest. Mallon would win two more majors, the du Maurier Classic in 2000 and her second U. S. Women's Open in 2004, she won the season-ending ADT Championship in 2003. She won a total of 18 events on the tour, including four major championships.

She had nine top-10 placings on the money list, her best being second in 1991. Mallon played for the United States in the Solheim Cup eight times: in 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, she served as an assistant team captain in 2009. She is the team captain in 2013. Mallon was inducted into the Ohio State Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996, the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame in 2002, the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 2008, she was recognized during the LPGA's 50th Anniversary in 2000 as one of the LPGA's top-50 players and teachers. She was a non-voting member of the LPGA Tour Player Executive Committee in 1999, 2004, 2008. Mallon announced her retirement from professional golf on July 7, 2010, shortly before the start of the 2010 U. S. Women's Open, she was inducted into the Palm Beach County Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2003 during the second round of the Welch's/Fry's Championship, Mallon became the first player in LPGA history to shoot a 60, one stroke off the LPGA Tour's all-time record of 59 set by Annika Sörenstam in 2001.

She is tied for second in the LPGA's all-time records for most career aces. LPGA Tour playoff record 1998 JCPenney Classic 2014 Walgreens Charity Championship ^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001. CUT = missed the half-way cut. "T" indicates a tie for a place. Starts – 84 Wins – 4 2nd-place finishes – 4 3rd-place finishes – 2 Top 3 finishes – 10 Top 5 finishes – 16 Top 10 finishes – 20 Top 25 finishes – 41 Missed cuts – 17 Most consecutive cuts made – 24 Longest streak of top-10s – 2 Professional Solheim Cup: 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005 World Cup: 2005 Handa Cup: 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 List of golfers with most LPGA Tour wins List of golfers with most LPGA major championship wins Meg Mallon at the LPGA Tour official site Meg Mallon at the Legends Tour official site Meg Mallon bio at about.com

Iskra is a Canadian blackened crust band founded in Victoria, British Columbia in 2002. Their name means "spark" in Slovak, Czech, Polish, Ukrainian and Bulgarian. Iskra performs and contributes to the anarchist underground musical tradition, which emerged via anarcho-punk in the late 1970s and 1980s with bands like Crass, Amebix and Conflict. By blending elements of crust punk and black metal, Iskra say they have created their own subgenre: "blackened crust". Iskra includes former members of the crust band Black Kronstadt, who in the 1990s described their music as "blackened crust", thus coining the phrase. Lyrically, Iskra's material follows in the anarchist punk tradition, with topics including criticism of government, economics, social issues such as homophobia, sexism and the struggles of indigenous peoples; the effects of political organization is a common theme. Some songs discuss the global effects of capitalist institutions such as the World Trade Organization, World Bank, the Central American Free Trade Agreement, the North American Free Trade Agreement and the Independent Task Force on North America.

Demo Iskra LP Fucking Scum cassette The Terrorist Act EP 7" Iskra/Self-Rule Split 7" Bring the War Home split CD/LP with Against Empire Selected Works compilation of all work excluding Bring the War Home Bureval Iskra LP remastered reissue Iskra/Doom Siren Split LP/cassette European Tour Demo 2012 LP/CD Bureval Demo LP Iskra/Ash and Ruin Split 7" Ruins LP Wolf – guitar Danielle – vocals Cody – drums Anatol – guitar Katie - bass Calvert - Drums Nick Engwer - Guitars Scott - Vocals Devin - Bass Jasper Van Der Veen - Drums Sean - Vocals Jesse - Drums Megan - Vocals Mel - Vocals J. P. - Bass Ray - Bass "Iskra Crust". Iskra Crust. Retrieved 2016-09-29. "Iskra | Listen and Stream Free Music, New Releases, Videos". Myspace.com. Retrieved 2016-09-29