28th Annual Toothpick Bridge Competition

DULUTH, Minn.– For 28 years, the Duluth Section of the American Society of Engineers gathers students from schools in the Twin Ports area for this event.

This year there were 45 teams of students from Superior, Cromwell Wright, Denfeld and Lakeview Christian Academy.

They built bridges using toothpicks and glue. The projects were judged on aesthetics, and then, faced the pressure test.

“We had a couple of restrictions, like the carpenter glue or Elmer’s glue only. We had to have it at least 16 inches to go on the thing. So yeah, it was a lot of fun,” said Jordan Sershon, a 12th grader at Denfeld High School. “So, I lost a couple of my pieces, but I did kind of a straight bridge like this. And I had a few pieces that had the strength on it. But that was basically my bridge!”

Many of the students participated in this competition for a class.

But some of the work was done outside of school, for almost 6 weeks they planned, and built their bridges in teams.

Some of the bridges could handle 19, and even up to 36 pounds of sand.

Each group had their special method for their projects.

“It was very fun; we went to one of our partners house. And we decided to do the oven method. So, we put it on parchment and set it to like 250 degrees and put it in for 15 minutes so it would dry faster. It was very effective,” said Sabrina Zoeller, a 10th grader at Cromwell Wright.

This is the first time UMD has hosted this event in 5 years. Now they’re hoping to keep the tradition going.