Canal Street Railroad Bridge
Coordinates: 41 ° 51 ′ 20 " N , 87 ° 38 ′ 13" W.
| Canal Street Railroad Bridge | ||
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| Convicted | Pennsylvania Railroad | |
| Subjugated | Chicago River | |
| place | Chicago | |
| construction | Steel truss - lift bridge | |
| Longest span | 83.2 m | |
| start of building | September 4, 1913 | |
| completion | July 30, 1914 | |
| planner | Waddell & Harrington | |
| location | ||
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The Canal Street Railroad Bridge or Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge is a lift bridge over the southern arm of the Chicago River in Chicago , Illinois in the United States . When it was built, the 1,500-ton main span was the heaviest lift bridge in the United States. It is the only bridge of this type over the Chicago River. On December 12, 2007, the structure was designated as a Chicago Landmark .
construction
The structure was built for the Pennsylvania Railroad to replace a double-track swing bridge in the same location. The necessity, on the one hand, to continue to use the existing bridge during the time of the new construction and, on the other hand, not to hinder navigation on the river, made the new construction complicated. The solution was to erect the new building with the main span in its raised position and tearing down the old bridge when the new building was finished. The construction was planned by Waddell & Harrington, and the construction was manufactured and erected by the Pennsylvania Steel Company.
Construction of the southern tower began on September 4, 1913. After both towers had reached a height of 56.4 m, falsework was erected to build the main span in a raised position, 39.6 m above the river.
business
The bridge carries two tracks of a railway line over the Chicago River and crosses it at a height of about 12 m above the water level. The main span could be raised to a height of 34 m within 45 seconds to allow the passage of ships.
Around 1916, around 300 trains a day passed the bridge, which was raised around 75 times a day.
Individual evidence
- ^ Nathan Holth: Canal Street Railroad Bridge ( English ) In: Historic Bridges of Michigan and Elsewhere . Retrieved May 9, 2009.
- ↑ a b c W.L. Smith, Priest, WW: The Design and Erection of the Pennsylvania Lift Bridge No. 458 Over the South Branch of the Chicago River . In: Western Society of Engineers (Ed.): Journal of the Western Society of Engineers . XX, Chicago, IL, 1915, pp. 478-500. Retrieved April 30, 2009.
- ^ A b Pennsylvania Railroad, South Branch Chicago River Bridge, Spanning South Branch of Chicago River Bridge east, Chicago, Cook County, IL ( English ) In: Historic American Engineering Record . Retrieved May 9, 2009.
- ↑ CHICAGO LANDMARKS: Individual Landmarks and Landmark Districts designated as of January 1, 2008 ( English , PDF; 330 kB) Commission on Chicago Landmarks. January 1st, 2008. Archived from the original on February 27th, 2008. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 8, 2009.
- ↑ James Alexander Low Waddell: Bridge Engineering ( English ), Volume 1. John Wiley & Sons Inc, New York 1916, p 734 (Accessed on May 9, 2009).
