Denver’s Gingerbread Bridge Competition

Build a gingerbread bridge, decorate it, and then… see how much weight it can hold. It’s a unique twist on a holiday tradition and one our homeschool group tackled for the first time this year at Denver’s Gingerbread Bridge Competition.

Sponsored by the Structural Engineers Association of Colorado, the 2022 event was held at Colorado School of Mines. Competitors included professional engineering firms, college students, and a few younger teams like ours.

For such a fun event, there were some very specific rules. There were limitations on both the size of individual gingerbread pieces and the overall bridges dimensions. Several teams had to saw pieces off their bridges at the competition to meet the criteria. Every piece of our bridges and displays also had to be edible. In fact, all competitors were required to eat some of their bridge after load testing.

In additional to the structural load testing, there were architectural and people’s choice awards. Here are some of the more creative entries at the competition…

While some of the bridges fell apart before testing, most did pretty well and one even held a whopping 418 pounds. Here’s how we did…

Close to 20 teams participated, most of them professional engineering firms, so we were especially excited that our teams did so well!

Click here to join our 2023 team.

Click here for more info about homeschooling and our group.

Click here for more info on the Denver’s Gingerbread Bridge Competition.