Image:RRTrussBridgeSideView.jpg

English: A w:Southern Pacific Railroad bridge, now part of the w:Iron Horse Regional Trail. This crosses a channelized Walnut Creek at the Concord-Pleasant Hill boundary immediately south of Monument Boulevard. , altered by blurring the background for clarity and image compression. This is a single track w:railroad bridge now used for pipeline support and to carry a w:pedestrian and w:bicycle path. The two outer vertical elements are in tension. The central vertical element stabilizes the upper horizontal chord, which is under compression. The diagonal elements are also in compression. Lower chord horizontal elements are in tension, shear, and bending. Some trusses do not use vertical elements, using greater resistance to bending in the horizontal elements to compensate. One form of truss uses a large number of diagonal elements to form a lattice-like structure. A truss like this may be designed in an inverted configuration, with the roadbed and footings on the top chord and the tension elements below. In that case some of the diagonal elements will be in tension. Truss structures are also used in cantilever structures, with the lower chord under compression and the upper chord under tension.