a cable-stayed bridge features cables that connect directly to the mast, pillar, or tower. By comparison, individual suspension bridge cables connect to vertical hangers, and the hangers in turn connect to the tower, mast, or pillar. Examples include the Delaware 1/Relief Route bridge over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and the Interstate 275 Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay.
A cable-stayed bridge is a bridge that consists of one or more columns (normally referred to as towers or pylons), with cables supporting the bridge deck. There are two major classes of cable-stayed bridges, differentiated by how the cables are connected to the tower(s). In a harp design, the cables are made nearly parallel by attaching cables to various points on the tower so that the height of attachment of each on the tower is similar to the distance from the tower along the roadway to its lower attachment.