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Historically, the term counter-arch was used in architecture to describe multiple types of arches that provide opposing action:

• 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;
• any relieving arch;
• outer "rings" of arches overlaying the one forming the intrados, used in old English bridges since medieval times, are called "counter-arches" following the works of John Smeaton;
• an arch that is built adjacent to another arch to oppose its forces or help stabilize it. The counter-arch can be used, for example, when constructing the flying buttress,
• buttressing arches built between the opposing building facades over narrow streets of old cities;
• in fortification, an arch built on the tops of counterforts behind the bastion walls intended to limit the scope of the potential wall breaching;
• 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.

• An old Ouse Bridge, York with middle arch using three rings (two "counter-arches")
• The Enneüs Heerma Bridge showing the inverted counter arch in the middle
• Drawing of a Neo-Gothic flying buttress for the late 19th-century Votive Church, Vienna
• Buttressing counter-arches in Bonifacio, Corsica
• Counter-arched wall of a bastion (the voids are usually filled)
• Old Westminster Bridge, with open spandrel

See also

• Arcade (architecture)
• Flying arch
• Flying buttress
• Inverted arch
• Strainer arch

References

1. Murray 1893, p. 1061.
2. Hodgson 1996, p. 289.
3. Trautwine 1874, p. 289, Moseley Bridge.
4. Ruddock 1979, p. 81.
5. "counter arch." McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2003. Answers.com, 7 September 2008.
6. Curl 2006, p. 207.
7. Niglio & Ulivieri 2018, p. 21.
8. Lima et al. 2015, p. 238.
9. Royal Military College 1852, p. 46.
10. Ruddock 2017, p. 165.
11. Ruddock 1979, p. 85.
12. Derwig, Jan. "Ijburg Bridge 1 Amsterdam, Netherlands". grimshaw.global. Retrieved 8 November 2021.

Sources

• Curl, James Stevens (2006). "counter-arch". A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-860678-9. Retrieved 2024-01-03.
• Murray, J.A.H. (1893). "Counter-arch". A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: part 1. C-Comm (1893). Clarendon Press. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
• Trautwine, J.C. (1874). "The Moseley Bridge". The Civil Engineer's Pocket-book: Of Mensuration, Trigonometry, Surveying, Hydraulics ... Etc. ... Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
• Hodgson, John A. (1996). The Behaviour of Skewed Masonry Arch Bridges (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Salford.
• Ruddock, T. (1979). Arch Bridges and Their Builders 1735-1835. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-21816-0. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
• Niglio, Olimpia; Ulivieri, Denise (2018). "Vernacular architecture and "historical seismography": an experience research" (PDF). 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. CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-429-62100-0. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
• Lima, A; Correia, M; Gomes, F; Carlos, G; Viana, D; Lourenço, P; Varum, H (2015-09-08). "Systematisation of seismic retrofitting in vernacular architecture". Seismic Retrofitting: Learning from Vernacular Architecture. CRC Press. pp. 235–239. doi:10.1201/b18856-49 (inactive 2024-11-11). ISBN 978-1-138-02892-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
• Royal Military College, Sandhurst (1852). Outlines of a Course of Lectures on Fortification, Military Tactics, and Perspective: With the Attack and Defence of Fortresses. Spottiswoodes and Shaw. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
• Ruddock, E.C. (2017). "Hollow Spandrels in Arch Bridges". Masonry Bridges, Viaducts and Aqueducts. Studies in the History of Civil Engineering. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-91928-9. Retrieved 2024-07-06.

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