Cable-stayed bridge replace older bridges all lowered the relative price of these designs. Cable-stayed bridges date back to 1595, where designs were found in "Machinae Novae", a book by Venetian inventor Fausto Veranzio. Many early suspension bridges were cable-stayed construction, including the 1817 footbridge Dryburgh Abbey Bridge, James Dredge's patented Victoria Bridge, Bath (1836), and the later Albert Bridge (1872) and Brooklyn Bridge (1883). Their designers found that the combination of technologies created a stiffer bridge. John A. Roebling took particular advantage of this to limit deformations due to railway loads in the Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge. The earliest known surviving example
Flexible cable designs. These are sometimes called “chain-suitable,” “high-flex,” or “continuous flex” cables. A higher level of flexibility means the service life of a cable inside a cable carrier can be greatly extended. A normal cable typically manages 50,000 cycles, but a dynamic cable can complete between one and three million cycles. Flexible cables can be divided into two types: those with conductors stranded in layers inside the cable, and those that have bundled or braided conductors. Stranding in layers is easier to produce, and therefore usually less expensive. The cable cores are stranded firmly and left relatively long in several layers