High Bridge (Kentucky River)
Coordinates: 37 ° 49 ′ 1 ″ N , 84 ° 43 ′ 13 ″ W.
| High bridge | ||
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| use | Railway bridge | |
| Crossing of | Kentucky River | |
| place | High bridge | |
| construction | Truss bridge | |
| overall length | 343 m / 357.5 m | |
| Number of openings | three | |
| Longest span | 114 m / 107.6 m | |
| completion | 1877/1911 | |
| planner | Charles Shaler Smith (1876) Gustav Lindenthal (1911) |
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The High Bridge is a railway bridge in Kentucky , USA , which crosses the Kentucky River near the place of the same name , which flows through the deep gorges of the Kentucky River Palisades . It connects Jessamine County and Mercer County and now serves the freight trains of the Norfolk Southern Railway on the route from Cincinnati and Lexington to Danville , Somerset and Chattanooga (Tennessee) .
history
Roebling's unfinished suspension bridge
In the 1850s, John August Roebling began building a suspension bridge for the Lexington and Danville Railroad . When the pylon towers were bricked up, further work was ended in 1861 by the bankruptcy of the client and the American Civil War .
Gerber Girder Bridge (1877)
After the civil war which left Cincinnati Southern Railway of Charles Shaler Smith a girder bridge plan, which was built from 1876 to 1877. The wrought iron truss bridge was 343 m (1125 ft) long, its central opening had a span of 114 m (375 ft). With its height of 84 m (275 ft ) it was the highest railway bridge in the world at the time. It is considered the first large Gerber girder bridge after the bridge over the Regnitz near Bamberg and the Main bridge in Haßfurt. However, it does not have a suspension bracket in the main opening, but rather a joint in each of the side openings.
Soon after it opened, the bridge became a popular destination. The place High Bridge was created with a stop for the passenger trains, a post office and an amusement park.
Girder Bridge (1911)
From 1910 to 1911 the current bridge was built by the American Bridge Company according to plans by Gustav Lindenthal to cope with the increased traffic loads. The construction was carried out with ongoing traffic around the existing bridge, whereby three new steel trusses meant that the track was raised by around 9 m and correspondingly high access ramps were built. The trusses were wide enough for two tracks, but initially only a track installed. Each of the three girders are 107.6 m (353 ft) long, 22.3 m (73 ft) high and 9.5 m (31 ft) wide. As they are slightly shorter than the original opening, new supports and short connecting bridges have been installed at both ends, making the new bridge a little longer than the original bridge at 357.5 m (1173 ft). The pillars were also renewed.
In 1929 the second track was installed. To do this, the old pylons were torn down.
The bridge was added to the list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 1985 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The bridge is also referred to in contemporary German specialist literature as the Kentucky Thalbrücke , see: Georg Christoph Mehrtens: Weitgespannt Strom- u. Thalbrücken d. Modern times. In: Centralblatt der Bauverwaltung Volume X, No. 35 (from August 30, 1890), pp. 357–360 ( digitized version ); No. 35A (of September 3, 1890), pp. 366-370 ( digitized version ), p. 367 there
- ^ The History of High Bridge, Kentucky at worldtimzone.org
- ↑ a b High Bridge on historic bridges.org
- ^ The New Kentucky River High Bridge. In: Engineering Record, Vol. 62, No. 27, 1910, p. 774 (on Google Books)