Footbridges are designed for pedestrians and sometimes light traffic, with narrow walkways and rails for safety. They can be recycled from closed automobile or railway bridges and come in various styles, including suspension and drawbridges. Walkways are also used for maintenance and theatrical purposes. In developing countries, boardwalks are important for transportation over flooded areas. Walkways can also be ornamental, used in gardens to bridge land or water features.
A footbridge is a bridge designed with foot traffic in mind. Some footbridges also allow for light traffic such as horses and bicycles while keeping motor vehicles such as cars off the bridge. In some cases, pedestrian bridges are converted railway or automobile bridges that have been closed to the traffic for which they were originally intended, an example of recycling materials where something has survived one use can be reused for another.
This type of bridge tends to be narrow, because it needs to be wide enough to accommodate pedestrians. The walkway design is also lightweight, without the extensive engineering required to support a bridge designed for things like automobiles. Many different styles of bridge can be built as footbridges, including suspension bridges and drawbridges.
For safety reasons, most walkways are equipped with rails. The rails provide grips for people who may feel unsteady on their feet and are also designed to keep people from falling off the deck. In cases where a footbridge passes over other forms of traffic, the bridge can be fully enclosed for added safety, ensuring that things cannot be dropped from the bridge to strike people or vehicles below. Enclosed walkways are sometimes known as skyways, especially when they pass between buildings; skyway design is used in some cold climates to allow people to move between buildings in complexes such as hospitals without having to go outdoors.
Walkways are also used inside and to provide access to the outside of buildings, in which case they are known as walkways. The walkways are used by maintenance crews to do things like wash windows, access roofs, and replace light bulbs. In theatrical settings, this style of catwalk is used by crew for lighting, scenery moving, and other duties.
In the developing world, boardwalks are an important part of the transportation network, allowing people to travel over rivers, ravines, and lowland areas that may be prone to seasonal flooding. Without bridges, people may have to travel a considerable distance to reach a site such as a hospital or market.
The walkway can be a purely ornamental element as well as a practical one. Some gardens use walkways to bridge various areas of land or to provide a method of passing over a stream or pond. Ornamental walkways are often designed with aesthetics in mind and may be arched or otherwise decorative in structure to make them visually interesting.
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