the apex of a bridge?

[The Lonely One]

what is the highest point of a bridge called (what I assume would almost always be the center). I can't find any technical name for it online. It's just called the "deck" from end to end on diagrams I find.

Is it the apex? Summit?

[raburrell]

What kind of a bridge? If you're talking an old bridge with stone arches, they'll have a capstone or keystone, but if you're talking a modern suspension bridge, it'll be something different.

[Duncan J Macdonald]

what is the highest point of a bridge called (what I assume would almost always be the center). I can't find any technical name for it online. It's just called the "deck" from end to end on diagrams I find.

Is it the apex? Summit?
I'd go with crown.

Technically, the deck of a suspension bridge forms an arch, and the exterior curve is known as the extrados, and the crown is its highest point.

See this article (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01688a.htm). Granted, the article speaks about stone arches, but the concepts are transferable IMHO.

[The Lonely One]

It's a small wooden bridge that arches over a lake. sort of a hand-built dealie.

But it does arch, so I'll go with crown unless someone tells me different. Thanks :)

[BigWords]

I would use 'center' for the middle of a bridge, unless I was specifically referring to the highest point in the middle of an arch bridge, in which case... I would probably ask the smart folks on AW to elucidate on the differences in bridge design and terminology.

[Puma]

I think I'd go with peak. We say things like "the road peaked in the middle of the mountain pass", won't that work just as well for bridge? If you say "the peak of the bridge deck" no one is going to have trouble understanding what you mean (I hope). Not sure that helps, but it does give you another option. Puma

[The Lonely One]

This is what I went with as a placeholder, but could I just leave it this way?

At the top of the bridge he paused...

I mean, does that make sense? Do you easily see the "top" as being the "center" and "highest point" in one?

[Bufty]

No. Out of context, and if it's a small hand-built wooden bridge, I have no idea what you mean by - at the top of the bridge he paused. And a lake -also out of context - can be any size at all.

Why not say what you mean? It's the middle of a bridge if someone is walking across it....

He paused in the middle of the bridge - or halfway across...

This is what I went with as a placeholder, but could I just leave it this way?

At the top of the bridge he paused.
I mean, does that make sense? Do you easily see the "top" as being the "center" and "highest point" in one?

[RJK]

I just Image Googled "What is the apex of an arch (http://images.google.com/images?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS296&q=what%20is%20the%20apex%20of%20an%20arch&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi)" and got a bunch of pictures of the top of the arch. I think Apex would work.

[dpaterso]

If it's a hump-back bridge then I'd call the highest center point the crest. I dunno if that's right, it's what my hindbrain threw out. :)

-Derek