Students at UNB spent four hours Saturday meticulously building the perfect bridges from popsicle sticks — only to watch them get crushed under a hydraulic press.

"Watching it break" is definitely the most fun part of the competition, says Quinn Selby, who won the contest with partner Marco Merlini.

The $500 top prize — and a chance to compete at the nationals in Montreal — is pretty good, too.

The contestants had four hours to build their bridges using nothing more than popsicle sticks, wooden toothpicks, dental floss and white glue. (Matthew Bingley/CBC)

"We only wanted to improve on our performance last year, but we won, which is much better than improving," Merlini said.

The contestants had four hours to build their bridges using nothing more than popsicle sticks, wooden toothpicks, dental floss and white glue.

"They're using their own imagination, looking at text books, looking at the internet, see what designs are efficient, what works best, what works in real life," said event organizer Eric Tynski.

UNB students used text books, the internet — and their imaginations — to come up with the perfect bridge design. (Matthew Bingley/CBC)

Last year, Graham McAteer's winning bridge held a whopping 700 kilograms before it snapped into pieces.

Selby and Merlini's bridge only held about 80 kilograms, but they scored the points they needed to win by predicting when — and how — their bridge would fail.

Which is also part of the fun.