The Federal Bridge Gross Weight Formula is a mathematical formula used by truck drivers and United States Department of Transportation (DOT) officials to determine the appropriate maximum gross weight for a commercial motor vehicle based on axle spacing. The formula is part of federal weight and size regulations regarding interstate commercial traffic (intrastate traffic is subject to state limits). The formula is necessary to prevent heavy vehicles from damaging roads and bridges. Commercial motor vehicles are most often tractor-trailers or buses, but the formula is of most interest to truck drivers due to the heavy loads their vehicles often carry. Early 20th century weight limits were enacted to protect dirt and gravel roads from damage caused by the solid wheels of heavy trucks. As time progressed, truck weight limits focused primarily on gross weight limits (which had no prescribed limits on length). By 1974, bridges received special protection from increasing truck weight limits. The bridge formula law was enacted by the U.S. Congress to limit the weight-to-length ratio of heavy trucks, and to protect roads and bridges from the damage caused by the concentrated weight of shorter trucks. The formula effectively lowers the legal weight limit for shorter trucks, preventing them from causing premature deterioration of bridges and highway infrastructure. Compliance with the law is checked when vehicles pass through a weigh station, often located at the borders between states.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Bridge_Gross_Weight_Formula

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1746:

Forces of the House of Hanover defeated the Jacobites at the Battle of Culloden, the final confrontation of the Jacobite Rising. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Culloden

1853:

The first passenger line of what would become Indian Railways, the state-owned railway company of India, opened between Bombay and Thane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Railways

1912:

American Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Quimby

1943:

Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of the semisynthetic drug LSD. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Hofmann

1947:

American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch first described the post-World War II tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States as a "cold war". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cold_war

2007:

In one of the deadliest shooting incidents in United States history, a gunman killed 32 people and wounded over 20 more before committing suicide at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Tech_massacre

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

metonymic (adj): Of, or relating to, a word or phrase that names an object from a single characteristic of it or of a closely related object http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/metonymic

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

What one man can do himself directly is but little. If however he can stir up ten others to take up the task he has accomplished much. --Wilbur Wright http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilbur_Wright