Fourteenth Street Bridge

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Coordinates: 38 ° 16 ′ 9 ″  N , 85 ° 45 ′ 52 ″  W.

Fourteenth Street Bridge
Fourteenth Street Bridge
use Railway bridge
Crossing of Ohio River
place Louisville, Kentucky and
Clarksville, Clark County, Indiana
Entertained by Louisville and Indiana Railroad
construction Truss bridge with lift bridge
overall length 1614 m
Longest span 196 m
Clear height 21 m (lift bridge above)
12 m (lift bridge below)
opening 1870, 1919
planner Albert Fink (1870)
JC Bland (1919)
location
Fourteenth Street Bridge (USA)
Fourteenth Street Bridge
McAlpine Locks and Dam navigation chart (detail) from 2010 (PRR-Bridge) .jpg
The McAlpine Locks and Dam with the Louisville and Portland Canal and Fourteenth Street Bridge (right)
p1

The Fourteenth Street Bridge (also Ohio Falls Bridge or Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge ) is a single-track railroad bridge over the Ohio between Louisville in Kentucky and Clarksville in Indiana . The namesake is the location of the access to the bridge in the city grid of Louisville, along the 14th Street (English Fourteenth Street ), the area of ​​which is taken up exclusively by the railway embankment. It leads through the rapids Falls of the Ohio , which now mostly below the water level of the dam McAlpine Locks and Dam are.

First plans to build a bridge from the 1830s go back to the politician James Guthrie . After several unsuccessful attempts, the project could only be implemented more than 30 years later, after the American Civil War . The first railroad bridge over the Ohio in Kentucky was finally designed by the bridge engineer of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N), Albert Fink , and from 1870 connected the railroad networks of the Midwest with those of the southern states . Fink's single - track truss bridge was in operation for almost 50 years, but could no longer cope with the daily increase in traffic to up to 300 trains at the beginning of the 20th century. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), as the owner at the time, was therefore forced to build a new double-track steel superstructure , which was built until 1919 while operations continued. In 1976 the insolvent successor company Penn Central went together with the bridge into the possession of the state rescue company Conrail . The Louisville and Indiana Railroad (LIRC) acquired the bridge in 1994 and operates it today only on a single track for freight traffic between Louisville and Indianapolis .

history

Falls of the Ohio

Falls of the Ohio 1796

The Falls of the Ohio are about 980  river kilometers from the origin of the Ohio near Pittsburgh and were a natural barrier for shipping until a canal was built, which was only passable for about two months a year when the water levels were sufficiently high . Unlocked hard rock banks from the fossil-rich Devonian limestones of the Jeffersonville Limestone Formation formed rapids over a distance of three kilometers in the river bed , where the Ohio rocks and limestone cliffs eroded , overcoming a height difference of about eight meters. Due to the compulsory stop for travelers along the river and the necessary relocation of freight on the way from the east coast to the west to the union with the Mississippi near Cairo and further towards the Gulf of Mexico or the west coast , settlements developed here, which later became the Cities Louisville on the Kentucky side and Clarksville and Jeffersonville on the Indiana side emerged.

On the Kentucky side, in 1820 the newly appointed was prosecutor of Jefferson County and later politician James Guthrie in today's Louisville down. As president of the operating company of the later Louisville and Portland Canal, he campaigned for a way to circumnavigate the rapids, which were built along the Kentucky shore from 1826 and opened for shipping in 1830. Guthrie was also a member of the Kentucky Senate and a driving force behind the development of Louisville and secretly wanted to make it the state capital. To this end, he campaigned, among other things, for the construction of the Jefferson County Courthouse and a bridge over the Falls of the Ohio . Both projects ran into financial problems due to the economic crisis of 1837 and could only be completed years later. The bridge project did not get beyond the laying of the foundation stone in 1836 and a new attempt at financing in the 1850s also failed.

Bridge by Albert Fink 1870

The first Fourteenth Street Bridge of Albert Fink in 1870, the focus of the Louisville and Portland Canal

After Guthrie had been Treasury Secretary under President Franklin Pierce from 1853 to 1857 , he became Vice President of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) and, in 1860, its President. To realize the long-planned bridge, which was to connect the two railway networks of the Midwest and the Southern States , which were separated by the Ohio , the L&N founded the Louisville Bridge Company together with the Jeffersonville, Madison and Indianapolis Railroad (JM&I) . The leading engineer at L&N was the civil engineer Albert Fink , who had emigrated from Germany . He designed a 1.6 km long truss bridge made of cast and wrought iron , which had an integrated swing bridge over the canal and rested on stone pillars that were 27 to 32 meters high. A special feature were the Fink girders patented by him with an overhead track that did not have a lower chord . This early form of truss was still used in the Wabash Bridge (1871) and the Verrugas Bridge (1873), but was later replaced by closed trusses.

Fink Truss Fourteenth Street Bridge (german) .png

Construction began on August 1, 1867 and was completed in early 1870, killing 56 workers and injuring 80 others. The first train crossed the 26 trusses of what was then the longest iron bridge in the USA on February 18, 1870. The eight meter wide railroad bridge also had a two meter wide footpath on the outside, of which the eastern one was open to the public from November 1870 .

The JM&I came under the control of the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway , a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which controlled the connection to Indianapolis , where connections to St. Louis , Chicago and the east coast existed. The PRR then acquired L & N's 60 percent stake in the Louisville Bridge Company in the mid-1870s , thereby becoming the owner of one of the first bridges over the Ohio along the 1,000 km northern border of Kentucky. The first railroad connection between the Midwest and the Southern States was realized by the Illinois Central Railroad near Cairo in 1861 before the American Civil War (1861–1865) using rail ferries across the Ohio, and the PRR built the first railroad bridge over the river in 1865 on the eastern border of Ohio in Steubenville . By the beginning of the 20th century, seven more railroad bridges were built on the river section in Kentucky, including one in Cairo (1890) and Henderson (1885), two more in Louisville (1886, 1895) and three in Cincinnati (1872, 1877, 1888 ). In the period of expanding railroad companies in North America after the Civil War, traffic over Fourteenth Street Bridge reached over 150 trains a day in 1882. In order to cope with the traffic, the technology of form signals (signals with moving elements), which originated in Europe and which became standard in the USA at the turn of the century , was used for the first time .

Ohio Railroad Bridges
(Kentucky Northern Border) 		year place
Fourteenth Street Bridge 1870 Louisville
Newport Southbank Bridge 1872 Cincinnati
Cincinnati Southern Bridge 1877 Cincinnati
Henderson Bridge 1885 Henderson
Kentucky & Indiana Terminal Bridge 1886 Louisville
C&O Railroad Bridge 1888 Cincinnati
Cairo Rail Bridge 1890 Cairo
Big Four Bridge 1895 Louisville
Railway network of the USA around 1870, the first connections across the Ohio between the networks of the Midwest and the southern states were established in Cairo , Louisville , Cincinnati and Steubenville (marked Blue circle.pngfrom left to right)
Railroad bridges built in the 19th century across the Ohio along the northern Kentucky border (see table on the right)

Conversion by the PRR in 1919

Replacement of the trusses in 1918, to maintain rail traffic, the trusses were supported with scaffolding and the individual components were transported using gantry cranes (center)

Fink's bridge turned out to be extremely robust and apart from three coats of paint, minor repairs to the bolt connections and the replacement of the supporting beams of the track level, its structural elements were almost maintenance-free in almost 50 years of operation; however, the swing bridge over the Louisville and Portland Canal was modernized in 1902, replacing the old truss and rotating mechanism. The volume of traffic doubled at the beginning of the 20th century to over 300 trains a day, with a steady increase in the weight of steam locomotives and the freight transported. In the 1910s, the PRR was therefore forced to equip the bridge with a new double-track steel superstructure . Like the original iron superstructure, the bridge piers were in excellent condition and could be re-used after minor modifications. From June 1916 to October 1918 the trusses were exchanged with the help of portal cranes during ongoing operations . In the course of the renovation, an additional footpath was dispensed with in favor of the second track and the swing bridge was replaced by a lift bridge. The opening of the new bridge took place in January 1919. The design and execution was directed by the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge engineer, JC Bland. His staff included Frank M. Masters , who as a metallurgist was responsible for monitoring the production of steel components. He later became a partner of Ralph Modjeski in the engineering office Modjeski & Masters , which is still in existence today and which, among other things, built the Louisville Municipal Bridge upstream in 1929 . The lift bridge was designed by the leading expert for this movable type of bridge at the time , John Alexander Low Waddell , who at the time was running the engineering company Waddell & Son with his son . JAL Waddell designed over 70 bridges of this type and was a co-founder of the engineering office that still exists today as Hardesty & Hanover .

Barrage and change of ownership until 1994

1940s aerial view of Lock and Dam No. 41 with the PRR Bridge and the Louisville Municipal Bridge in the background

The Louisville and Portland Canal was nationalized in 1874 and taken over by the United States Army Corps of Engineers . This was followed by several extensions of the locks and the canal running below the bridge, which also necessitated the construction of the lifting bridge. By removing the central pillar of the old swing bridge, the width of the fairway could be widened from 32 m to over 70 m. Furthermore, the amount was in Falls of the Ohio a barrage built, the dam is a erectile at low tide in the 1920s Tainter gate (wicket dam) and a hydropower plant as Lock and Dam No. 41 extended. From the end of the 1950s, the lock systems were further enlarged and a new pressure segment weir (Tainter gates) was built , with the last fairway under the bridge's largest truss girder being closed. In 1960, the barrage was renamed McAlpine Locks and Dam , the reservoir of which today largely covers the rapids . Only in the northern part behind the flood relief are parts in front of the bridge that are now in the Falls of the Ohio State Park .

As a result of the ongoing expansion of the road network and the emergence of motorized individual transport, the railroad transported fewer and fewer goods and people, which in the 1970s led to the bankruptcy of several railway companies in the eastern United States. Among them was Penn Central , the successor to the PRR. As a result, the state rescue company Conrail was created, which also owned the railway bridge over the Ohio. In 1994, the Louisville and Indiana Railroad (LIRC) was formed as part of the Anacostia Rail Holdings Company , which acquired a 170 km line between Louisville and Indianapolis from Conrail. This also included the Fourteenth Street Bridge , which is now operated by the railway company on a single track for freight traffic and is also available to the cooperation partner CSX Transportation . Starting in 2015, CSX invested around US $ 100 million  in expanding the LIRC route to Indianapolis so that it can also be used with 130-ton freight cars. In addition, the maximum permissible speed could be increased from 40 to almost 80 km / h. In this context, LIRC 2015 also overhauled the lift bridge drive. In April, a bracket for the steel cables failed, as a result of which shipping traffic had to be interrupted for 48 hours. Thanks to the cooperation with CSX, LIRC has developed into one of the most successful local railway companies and was selected as Short Line of the Year by the Railway Age magazine in early 2019 .

description

The Fourteenth Street Bridge is divided into the northern part on the Indiana side (group V), the horizontal central part in Kentucky with the two largest trusses over the fairways that were partially usable at the time (groups III and IV) and the southern part, also located in Kentucky, the is completed by the lift bridge over the canal (groups I and II). The superstructure from the 1910s has a total of 21 truss and four beam girders as well as two truss towers (lifting bridge). It rests on 26 brick piers made of sandstone , most of which date from 1870. They reach a height of up to 32 m and were built directly on the bedrock of the river bed. To accommodate the wider double-track steel superstructure, the bridge piers were partially shortened and provided with steel supports that support the supports of the bridge elements . The largest lattice girder (in the middle section) had to be enlarged during the renovation in accordance with the state requirements and today extends over 196 m (previously 122 m), with a former bridge pillar removed. Further changes related to the span concerned the new construction of the lifting bridge and the adjacent beam girders on the south side as well as two smaller beam girders on the abutment on the north side in Indiana. The remaining pillar spacing of the 1614 m long bridge remained unchanged and varies between 46 m and 113 m (the spans are usually somewhat shorter, as one pillar always supports the supports of two neighboring bridge fields and when attached in the same horizontal plane not both on the Can lie central axis of the pillar).

and display information about the image
Panorama (2005) and schematic drawing (1919) of the Fourteenth Street Bridge between Louisville (left) and Clarksville / Jeffersonville (right). The length specifications relate to the distances between the central pillars, whereby the spans between the supports are usually shorter because one pillar carries the ends of two bridge spans. All information in the Anglo-American units feet (′) and inches (″).

North Part (Indiana)

Lattice girders on the north side in front of the McAlpine Locks and Dam dam , followed by the largest girder with a span of 196 m (view from Falls of the Ohio State Park )

The northern part of the bridge begins on the Indiana bank of the Ohio with the abutment, which is flanked on both sides by brick towers up to the level of the track level and frames the first 10 m long beam. This is followed by another 30 m long beam girder over the Ohio River Scienic Bayway , which is followed by four parallel- chorded truss girders with an overhead track over the Falls of the Ohio State Park , which are designed as strut trusses with posts and in this design for a total of 18 truss girders different sizes of the bridge were used. The lengths vary between 46 m and 55 m, whereby the construction height increases with the length and reaches over 10 m in the middle part of the longest identical beams (with a span of 75 m). The gradient to the middle section is 13.8 ‰ on this 251 m long section. The border between the states of Indiana and Kentucky runs under the third truss.

Middle section (Kentucky)

Drawing of the construction of the 196 m girder with the two old girders and scaffolding, bridge piers are highlighted in yellow (the middle one has been removed); Figures in feet (′) and inches (″).

The horizontal middle section extends with a length of 684 m over seven bridge fields. Above the former fairways, which were only navigable when the water level was sufficient and which are now closed by the dam, there are 113 m and 196 m long semi-parabolic girders with a track below, between which five of the parallel-chorded truss girders with tracks above are attached, the lengths here of around 75 m. The semi-parabolic girders with their curved upper chord are designed as stud frameworks, with additional posts as well as additional longitudinal and transverse struts in the lower area, which further subdivides and reinforces the framework fields. This design, known as the Pennsylvania truss , was developed by the Pennsylvania Railroad and used until the 1930s. With higher load capacities, it was more material-saving in design than older truss constructions, which was important in order to minimize the dead weight, especially with large spans. As mentioned above, the bridge's longest girder spans three of the former bridge piers with a span of 196 m, with the middle pillar removed and the southern one reinforced towards Kentucky for the 5630-tonne steel girder; it is therefore the only one of the river pillars in the lower area to have a concrete casing. The truss reaches a construction height of over 35 m in the middle and is 11.5 m wide. It is one of the largest single- span girders in the world and was only surpassed by the Metropolis Bridge (1917, 220 m) and the MacArthur Bridge (1912, 204 m).

  • Middle part with the two outer trusses with the track below

  • Reinforced bridge pier in front of the segment weir , for size comparison see the angler on the left

  • 75 m truss with overhead track in the middle section

Southern part with lift bridge (Kentucky)

Southern lattice tower of the lift bridge with pulleys and reinforced concrete counterweight

The southern part of the bridge consists of nine of the parallel-chorded trusses with an overhead track, the length of which is reduced from 69 m to 46 m towards the Kentucky shore. A lift bridge with a span of 79 m above the canal forms the end, which is led between two 12 m wide lattice towers. The transitions to the other lattice girders or to the abutment on the Kentucky shore are realized by girder bridges of 33 m and 18 m length. The Louisville and Portland Canal extends multiple extensions today next to the lift bridge over three bridge spans, and several former river piers by standing on the artificial headland of Shippingport Iceland that the channel of the reservoir of the McAlpine Locks and Dam separates. The total of 670 m long southern part of the bridge has a gradient of 14.4 ‰, with the lower chords of the lift bridge being aligned horizontally and only the track level being inclined.

Open lift bridge with the operation building on the middle part of the truss, on the left the signal box at the end of the bridge

The vertical movement of the 1200 t semi-parabolic girder of the lift bridge - designed as a strut framework with posts - is realized by reinforced concrete counterweights, which hang within the 32 m high lattice towers on 4 × 16 steel cables with a diameter of 5.4 cm each, which are in groups of 16 cables be guided over steel pulleys at the top of the towers. These have a diameter of 4.6 m, the total height of the steel structure is over 34 m. The control takes place via another cable pull system, which is driven by two electric motors, which are located in a company building on the middle part of the truss. In addition, it can be operated from a signal box that is located at the end of the bridge next to the abutment. The lattice girder can be raised almost 10 m and allows shipping traffic a passage height of 21 m ( clearance height at normal water level of the reservoir of the barrage).

In the direction of Louisville , the abutment is followed by a girder bridge over former railway tracks that are now part of the Louisville Riverwalk . Before the approach to the bridge runs along the eponymous 14th Street ( Fourteenth Street ) in the Louisville city grid , it passes under an elevated street of the intersecting Interstate 64 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Fourteenth Street Bridge  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Charles H. Bogart: The Railroads of Kentucky During the 1940s & 1950s. Lulu.com, 2018, ISBN 978-1-387-97200-5 , p. 349.
  2. ^ R. Todd Hendricks, Daniel J. Phelps, Frank R. Ettensohn, George Weems, Judy Lundquist: Silurian and Devonian Geology and Paleontology at the Falls of the Ohio, Kentucky / Indiana. 42nd Annual Meeting of the AIPG, Lexington October 8-13, 2005.
  3. ^ Leland R. Johnson: The Falls City Engineers: A History of the Louisville District, Corps of Engineers. United States Army, 1975, p. 57 f. ( Digitized version ).
  4. ^ Lewis and Clark - Falls of the Ohio. Indiana Department of Natural Resources, State of Indiana. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  5. ^ John E. Kleber: The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2015, ISBN 978-0-8131-2100-0 , p. 531.
  6. ^ John E. Kleber: The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2015, ISBN 978-0-8131-2100-0 , pp. 362 f.
  7. ↑ Christopher T. Baer: A General Chronology of the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company, Its Predecessors and Successors and Its Historical Context. Pennsylvania Technical and Historical Society, 2015, p. 16 f. (Entry from February 24, 1870). Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  8. ^ Bridge over the Ohio River at Louisville. In: American Railroad Journal. Vol. 43, March 19, 1870, p. 337.
  9. ^ A b c Old Ohio River Bridge at Louisville - Nearly Fifty Years in Service. In: Engineering News-Record. Vol. 77, No. 6, 1917, pp. 217-222.
  10. ^ A b c d e f John E. Kleber: The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2015, ISBN 978-0-8131-2100-0 , pp. 315 f.
  11. ^ Pennsylvania Railroad Fourteenth Street Bridge. ( Memento from January 18, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Bridges & Tunnels.
  12. ↑ Christopher T. Baer: A General Chronology of the Pennsylvania Rail Road Company, Its Predecessors and Successors and Its Historical Context. Pennsylvania Technical and Historical Society, 2015, p. 85 (entry Nov. 13, 1870). Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  13. ^ Elmer G. Sulzer: Ghost Railroads of Indiana. Indiana University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-253-33483-7 , p. 83.
  14. ^ A b Clayton B. Fraser: Nebraska City Bridge. Historic American Engineering Record, HAER No. NE-2, Denver, Colorado 1986, pp. 221-238.
  15. ^ Sandra Hudnall Day, Alan Hall: Steubenville. Arcadia Publishing, 2005, ISBN 0-7385-3399-8 , p. 53.
  16. ^ The Purple People Bridge: History. Newport Southbank Bridge Co., Retrieved March 2, 2019.
  17. ↑ Paul A. Tenkotte, James C. Claypool: The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2009, ISBN 978-0-8131-2565-7 , p. 175.
  18. ^ John E. Kleber: The Encyclopedia of Louisville. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington 2015, ISBN 978-0-8131-2100-0 , p. 89.
  19. ^ Thomas McIntyre Cooley, Thomas Curtis Clarke: The American railway; its construction, development, management, and appliances. C. Scribner's Sons, New York 1889, p. 431 ( digitized version ).
  20. ^ Maintaining Traffic During Erection of Louisville Bridge. In: Engineering News-Record. Vol. 82, No. 22, 1919, pp. 1061-1064.
  21. ^ A b c Design of New Superstructure of Louisville Bridge with 644-foot Riveted Span. In: Engineering News-Record. Vol. 82, No. 21, 1919, pp. 1007-1011.
  22. ↑ Ralph Modjeski, Frank M. Masters: The Louisville municipal bridge over the Ohio river between Louisville, Kentucky and Jeffersonville, Indiana. Modjeski & Masters, Consulting Engineers, Harrisburg 1930, p. 23 ( digitized version ).
  23. ^ Designers of Louisville Lift-Bridge Machinery. In: Engineering News-Record. Vol. 82, No. 24, 1919, p. 1151.
  24. ^ William E. Nyman: Dr. JAL Waddell's Contributions to Vertical Lift Bridge Design. Heavy Movable Structures Inc., 9th Biennial Movable Bridge Symposium, 22.-25. October 2002, tables 3a and 3b.
  25. ↑ Firm Overview // History. Hardesty & Hanover, accessed February 27, 2019.
  26. ↑ a b c d e f Reconstruction of a Notetable Railroad Bridge. In: Railway Age. Vol. 66, No. 4., 1919, pp. 238-243.
  27. ^ Charles E. Parrish: McAlpine Locks and Dam at the Falls of the Ohio. US Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
  28. ^ Leland R. Johnson, Charles E. Parrish: Triumph at the Falls: The Louisville and Portland Canal. US Army Corps of Engineers, Louisville District, 2007, pp. IV – VIII.
  29. ^ LIRC - Louisville & Indiana Railroad. Anacostia Rail Holdings Company. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  30. ↑ Kathy Bergstrom: Pact with CSX would help the Louisville & Indiana Railroad better serve customers - and attract new ones. Progressive Railroading, September 2013. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  31. ↑ Kyra Senese: LIRC, CSX prepare for longer, faster trains. Railway Track & Structures, August 15, 2016. Accessed May 12, 2019.
  32. ↑ Barge traffic on Ohio River halted over weekend after railroad bridge cable snaps. ( Memento from May 12, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) WDRB-News, April 13, 2015.
  33. ↑ William C. Vantuono: Railway Age's 2019 Short Line and Regional Railroads of the Year: LIRC, RCPE. Railway Age, March 11, 2019. Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  34. ↑ Reconstruction of a Note Table Railroad Bridge. In: Railway Age. Vol. 66, No. 4., 1919, ill. On p. 238 a. 239.
  35. ↑ Reconstruction of a Note Table Railroad Bridge. In: Railway Age. Vol. 66, No. 4., 1919, ill. On p. 241.
  36. ^ Glenn A. Knoblock: Historic Iron and Steel Bridges in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. McFarland, Jefferson 2012, ISBN 978-0-7864-4843-2 , pp. 33-37.
  37. ^ William E. Rolfe, Lucius H. Cannon: The Municipal Bridge of St. Louis. In: St. Louis Public Library Monthly Bulletin. August 1922, pp. 165–198, here p. 195 ( digitized version ).
  38. ↑ Riveted-Truss Span of Record Length. In: Engineering News-Record. Vol. 82, No. 21, 1919, p. 995.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles in this version on June 1, 2019 .