The road bridge over the Sava River in Zagreb (the so called Sava Bridge), was opened to traffic seventy years ago. It is the world's oldest major bridge with a composite deck structure, although it was not designed with that objective in mind. In fact, the designer intended to use the reinforced-concrete deck slab as a wind bracing only, but he nevertheless installed a sort of shear connectors. The load testing results encouraged additional laboratory testing, as well as a more daring use of composite structures in bridge construction.

Key words:
bridge with a composite deck structure, composite structure, reinforced-concrete deck slab, wind bracing, chear connector, load testing