[1][2]: 85 [3] The name comes from the word extrados, the exterior or upper curve of an arch, and refers to how the "stay cables" on an extradosed bridge are not considered as such in the design, but are instead treated as external prestressing tendons deviating upward from the deck.

[2]: 85–86  This arrangement results in the typical extradosed "look" of a fan of low, shallow-angle stay cables, usually with a pronounced "open window" region extending from the sides of each tower.

[1]: 387–388  They have frequently been adopted when overall height, navigation clearance, or aesthetic requirements have made the cable-stayed or girder alternatives less feasible.

[4]: 3–5  The Ganter Bridge is a modified prestressed concrete cantilever girder design, where the longitudinal "continuity" tendons are raised significantly above the deck height at the ends of each main span and supported on short towers.

These tendons are encased in fin-like blade walls on each side of the towers for protection, a design arrangement now often referred to as a cable-panel bridge.

[4]: 2 While little is known of the origin of Menn's design, Mathivat developed a theoretical basis for such a concept during 1982–83 while preparing a tender proposal for the Autoroute A64 viaduct across Arret-Darre in France.

The extradosed tendons were continuous over the towers and were stressed from the deck level, unlike stay cables, which normally terminate at the top of each pylon.

[4]: 5 The first example of a bridge constructed using Mathivat's concepts appears to be the 1993 Ponte dos Socorridos[6] at Camara de Lobos, Portugal, with a main span of 106 m (348 ft).

This was quickly followed by the Odawara Blueway Bridge on the Seisho Bypass, Japan, designed by Akio Kasuga and completed in 1994.

[4]: 6  This bridge has a 122 m (400 ft) main span, a 16.2-m deck width and utilises four 10.7-m tall pylons each supporting two sets of eight exposed extradosed tendons in a modified fan arrangement.

[2]: 87 [8][9][10] In 1996, a short 54 m (177 ft) span bridge of the extradosed style was constructed to pass the A43 Autoroute across the Maurienne River at Saint-Remy-de-Maurienne, France.

This was followed in 1998 by the curved, 140 m (460 ft) multi-span Sunniberg Bridge in Switzerland, also designed by Christian Menn and utilising low, outward-leaning pylons to minimise its visual impact on the surroundings.

[4]: 10 [11] In North America, a small 104 m (341 ft) fin-backed prestressed concrete bridge was built across Barton Creek near Austin, Texas in 1993 to service a private development.

This is similar in concept to the original Ganter Bridge, except that the stay cables are encased within triangular blade walls connecting the deck to the towers.

[4]: 5–6  The first "true" extradosed design on the continent is the North Arm Bridge at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which spans 180 m (590 ft) and was completed in 2008.

[4]: 1, 26 Their hybrid nature can lead to significant additional complexity in their design, as the response of the bridge to applied loads is determined by the interactions between:[4]: 46–50 Although differentiated from cable-stayed bridges in a number of areas, the principal and defining extradosed characteristic is the low height of the main towers or pylons, expressed as a proportion of the main span length.

In both cases, the remainder of the load is carried by the longitudinal girder element in spanning-action between the main bridge supports.

[4]: 13  This has a direct benefit in reducing the detrimental effects of fatigue experienced by the stay cables and their end anchorages, and bridge design codes allow extradosed stay cables to operate at a significantly higher design stress level and therefore material efficiency level as a result.

[1]: 394 [2]: 85 As a result of these characteristics, the "stay cables" on extradosed bridges are not treated as such by the design codes, but are instead considered as external post-tensioning tendons that have been deviated upwards from the deck to the towers to increase the superstructure's load capacity over the main supports.

Therefore, it was proposed an extradosed bridge type, which reduces the height of the pylon, and a single plane of stays to allow a more transparent view.

[15] The Golden Ears Bridge, crosses the Fraser River between the municipalities of Pitt Meadows / Maple Ridge and Langley.

[22] A few months later in June 2017, the Arrah–Chhapra Bridge opened across the Ganges river connecting Arrah and Chhapra in Bhojpur and Saran districts in the state of Bihar.

The Earthquake Memorial Bridge was built in four years on the Jhelum River in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Azad Jammu Kashmir region of Pakistan.

The cable-stayed extradosed bridge was designed and funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency at the cost of approximately Rs 1.5 billion.