Bear Mountain Bridge
Coordinates: 41 ° 19 ′ 12 ″ N , 73 ° 59 ′ 1 ″ W.
| Bear Mountain Bridge | ||
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| use |
  Road bridge
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| Crossing of | Hudson River | |
| Entertained by | New York State Bridge Authority | |
| construction | Suspension bridge | |
| overall length | 711 m | |
| width | 15 m | |
| Longest span | 497 m | |
| Clear height | 41 m | |
| start of building | 1923 | |
| opening | November 27, 1924 | |
| planner | Howard C. Baird | |
| toll | toll | |
| location | ||
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The Bear Mountain Bridge is a two-lane road bridge in the US state of New York that spans the Hudson River between Rockland Counties and Orange Counties in the west and Westchester County and Putnam Counties in the east.
When it opened on November 27, 1924, it was the first bridge over the Hudson River south of Albany , New York, and the longest suspension bridge in the world until it was replaced by the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in 1926 . The Bear Mountain Bridge was also the first suspension bridge with a concrete deck .
location
Bear Mountain Bridge is located at a narrow point in the Hudson River between the steep slopes of Bear Mountain and Anthony's Nose . On the banks of the river below are the railroad lines of the Hudson Line operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the River Subdivision on the western side. The Bear Mountain Bridge is in the wake of US Highway 6 and US 202, the hiking trail Appalachian Trail and the New York State Bicycle Route 9 . The United States Military Academy is located about 10 km further upstream at West Point .
history
As early as 1868 there were proposals for a double-deck suspension bridge with railroad tracks and a roadway. It was hoped that the railroad would bring coal from Pennsylvania to New England more cheaply . After lengthy survey work in the difficult, mountainous terrain and various unsuccessful attempts to build the bridge, activities were discontinued.
In 1913, Bear Mountain State Park , located west of the Hudson River, was opened and quickly became a popular destination for the New York population, so that the ferry traffic that had now been installed was often overloaded. In 1922 the Bear Mountain Hudson Bridge Company received a legal license to build and operate a road bridge over the Hudson for 30 years. The plans for the bridge were drawn up by Howard C. Baird and Francis P. Witmer. In March 1923, work began on the bridge and the nearly 5 km long access road along the steep slopes of the Hudson. In October the anchorages for the suspension cables in the granite slopes were ready, in April 1924 the steel pylons were in place. In August, John A. Roebling & Sons, Co. completed the air-jet spinning process for the manufacture of the suspension cables. Then the elements of the track girder, which were transported by ship, were hung on the suspension cables and finally the concrete for the track surface was poured in. The bridge was completed on September 10, 1924. It was ceremoniously opened on November 26, 1926 and opened to traffic on the following day.
The bridge was a technological success, but financially it only brought losses for 13 of the first 16 years. In 1940 it was taken over by the New York State Bridge Authority , which significantly lowered the toll in two stages.
In 1982 the Bear Mountain Bridge was inscribed on the National Register of Historic Places .
description
The Bear Mountain Bridge is a suspension bridge with a main opening span of 497.43 m (1632 ft) and a clearance of 41 m (135 ft) above MHW . In addition to the two lanes, it has a cycle path or hard shoulder and behind concrete ramps a narrow footpath.
The deck girder is a 15.24 m (50 ft) wide steel truss structure. Its two 107 m (351 ft) high pylons each consist of two slender, steel stems that are stiffened by horizontal and diagonal struts but are flexible in the longitudinal direction. These stems support the two 46 cm thick suspension cables made of parallel wire ropes , which are anchored directly in the granite rocks of the bank slopes. The hangers of the suspension cables are connected to the lower chord of the roadway girder, which is why the suspension cables are also routed along the outside of the roadway girder to the lower chord. In the middle third of the bridge, they therefore run below the carriageway resting on the girder, giving users of the bridge an uninterrupted view of the Hudson River.
Only the track girder of the main opening is attached to the suspension cables with hangers, the side panels are short truss bridges with no connection to the suspension cables. For the first time, the carriageway was made from a concrete ceiling that was cast on site , but it has no load-bearing function.
The Bear Mountain Bridge, with its slender pylons and the comparatively light and narrow deck girder, is an example of the influence that the deflection theory , which has been further developed since the Manhattan Bridge, has had on the construction of suspension bridges.
Since 2012, the bridge toll levied by the bridge operator New York State Bridge Authority , which is only levied in the east direction, has been $ 1.50 for cars or $ 1.25 with an electronic E-ZPass.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Bear Mountain Bridge Historic Overview , on nycroads.com
- ↑ Marcel Prade: Les grands ponts du monde . Deuxième partie, Hors d'Europe. Brissaud à Poitiers. ISBN 2-902170-68-8 , p. 132
- ↑ a b Bear Mountain Bridge on the ASCE Metropoltian Section website
- ↑ Bear Mountain Bridge in: Kathryn W. Burke: Hudson river Bridges . Arcadia Publishing, Charleston SC, Chicago IL, Portsmouth NH, San Francisco CA 2007, ISBN 978-0-7385-4986-6 , pp. 25-48 with a detailed description of the building and numerous photos
- ↑ Toll Schedule / E-Zpass Info ( Memento from November 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on the New York State Bridge Authority website