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Smithfield Street Bridge

1889

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Smithfield Street Bridge
  • Title
  • Smithfield Street Bridge
  • Creator
  • James Benney III
  • Identifier
  • PSS20.B001.F40.I01
  • Source Identifier
  • PSS20.B001.F40.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 first of 1845, the wooden bridge fell within ten 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. In 1915 the Pittsburgh 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 by aluminum greatly lightening the bridge's dead weight, and the iron railings were replaced by plain hollow aluminum railings. In 1994 the aluminum floor structurs was replaced by 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, ahs be 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. The building in the background is the Monongahela House, which was razed in the early 1920s.
  • Genre
  • photographs
  • Subject
  • Smithfield Street Bridge (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
    Bridges--Pennsylvania--Pittsburgh.
    Monongahela House (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
  • Source
  • James Benney (III) Photographs, 1888-1889, PSS 20, Library and Archives Division, Senator John Heinz History Center
  • Contributor
  • Detre Library & Archives, Heinz History Center
  • Collection
  • James Benney Photographs
  • Rights Information
  • No Copyright - United States. The organization that has made the Item available believes that the Item is in the Public Domain under the laws of the United States, but a determination was not made as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. The Item may not be in the Public Domain under the laws of other countries. Please refer to the organization that has made the Item available for more information.
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/