This is similar to the method used in a tied-arch bridge where arch member compression is balanced by tension in the deck.

The self-anchored suspension bridge form originated in the mid-19th century, with a published description by Austrian engineer Josef Langer in 1859 and U.S. Patent No.

The form was applied to a handful of Rhine River crossings in Germany during the first half of the twentieth century.

[2] The nature of the self-anchored suspension bridge necessitates the temporary construction of falsework, in the form of compression struts or an underdeck, before work begins on the permanent structure.

On a suspension bridge of the more usual earth-anchored type, both of the primary (i.e., horizontal) cable's anchorages exist prior to construction in the form of solid terrain.