Seen here on the floor of the shop are several parts to a typical Berlin Iron Bridge Company truss bridge. The shorter pieces appear to be end posts or portions of the top chord. The exposed ends of these show an angle milled so as to allow it to bear against the top chord, and a half-hole has been made to accomodate the pin for the joint. The small pieces piled up on the left are stay plates, used to join adjacent pieces with rivets. The connection diagram shows how these pieces appeared in the finished bridge. Because there was a limit to how big the bridge components could be and still be practical to ship to the site (which in many cases was a rural, out-of-the-way location), larger parts such as the top chord were made in sections, then bolted together in the field.