Smithfield Street Bridge

1949

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Smithfield Street Bridge
  • Title
  • Smithfield Street Bridge
  • Creator
  • Johnston & Johnston
  • Identifier
  • MSP285.B010.F10.I01
  • Source Identifier
  • MSP285.B010.F10.I01
  • Description
  • The Smithfield Street Bridge, spanning the Monongahela River at Smithfield Street, has undergone many changes, some radical, others merely cosmetic. The first Smithfield Bridge crossed the Monongahela River in 1818 and was likely the first bridge across any of the three rivers. In the great fire of 1845, the bridge of wood construction fell within 10 minutes. The rebuilding began in 1846 by John Augustus Roebling, who went on to design the famous Brooklyn Bridge. The present Smithfield Street Bridge has two lenticular main spans of 360 feet each, the largest ever built in the United States. The downstream half of the bridge is the original, and KLOMAN PATENT PROCESS 1881 is stamped into the eyebars that form its catenaries. In 1915 the City Architect, Stanley L. Roush, designed the present portals that included grotesques of workmen at the springings of the arches. In 1934 the old wrought-iron floor was replaced with aluminum, greatly lightening the bridge’s dead weight and the iron railings were replaced by plain hollow aluminum railings. In 1994 the aluminum floor structure was replaced by a new one of steel, and the bridge was re-lit and repainted as it appeared in 1915. The bridge, the oldest through-truss bridge and longest of its type in the United States, has been designated a National Historic Landmark, National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and City Historic Structure. The total length (including longest elevated ramp) of the present bridge is 1,184 feet with a deck height of 42.5 feet.
  • Genre
  • photographs
  • Subject
  • Smithfield Street Bridge (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Monongahela River (W. Va. And Pa.)
    Bridges--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
  • Source
  • Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs, 1892-1981, MSP 285, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center
  • Contributor
  • Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center
  • Collection
  • Allegheny Conference on Community Development Photographs
  • Rights Information
  • Copyright Not Evaluated. The copyright and related rights status of this Item has not been evaluated. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use.
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/