Chester Bridge (Ohio River)

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Coordinates: 40 ° 36 ′ 44 ″  N , 80 ° 34 ′ 20 ″  W.

Chester Bridge
Chester Bridge
Suspension bridge over the Ohio River (1897–1970) between East Liverpool (left) and Chester (right), looking east
use Lincoln Highway
Crossing of Ohio River
place East Liverpool , Ohio and
Chester , West Virginia
construction Suspension bridge
overall length 531 m
width 8.5 m
Longest span 215 m
Clear height 27 m ( low water )
opening 1896
closure 1969
location
Chester Bridge (Ohio River) (USA)
Chester Bridge (Ohio River)

The Chester Bridge was a two-lane road bridge over the Ohio River between East Liverpool in Ohio and Chester in West Virginia . The suspension bridge was built by private investors by the end of 1896 as part of the expansion of Rock Springs Park into an amusement park on the West Virginia bank and enabled a tram connection between East Liverpool and the park, which opened in May 1897. With the relocation of the Lincoln Highway over the northern tip of West Virginia in 1927, it became part of the first road link between the east and west coast of the USA. Severe corrosion on the suspension cables led to the bridge being closed in 1969 and finally to the demolition of the bridge a year later. A four-lane new construction for US Highway 30 followed one kilometer upstream with the Jennings Randolph Bridge by 1977 ; Another connection over the Ohio in the southwest of East Liverpool has existed since 1905 with the Newell Toll Bridge .

history

1930s postcard of Chester Bridge looking west

East Liverpool attorney James E. McDonald purchased about 70 acres in about 1890 on the opposite bank of the Ohio River in West Virginia, including 4.5 acres of Rock Springs Park , a popular picnic spot that was reached by ferry . McDonald planned to expand the area into a large-scale amusement park with a tram connection over a newly built bridge over the Ohio. Construction work on the suspension bridge began in March 1896 and was completed in December; the opening took place on New Year's Eve 1896. The first tram crossed the bridge on Memorial Day the following year to mark the opening of the new theme park. This flourished from the turn of the century to the 1930s and lasted until the mid-1970s.

The park and the bridge changed hands several times independently over the years, the state of Ohio acquired the bridge in 1938 and West Virginia acquired Rock Springs Park in the early 1970s . The latter took place in the course of the new construction of the Jennings Randolph Bridge and the relocation of US Highway 30 through the former park area. The Chester Bridge had been part of the Lincoln Highway since 1927 , when the course of the first road link between the east and west coasts of the USA was laid and from then on ran over the northern tip of West Virginia. After more than 70 years of operation, the bridge had to be closed in 1969 due to severe corrosion on the suspension cables; a year later the bridge was finally demolished. The new construction of the Jennings Randolph Bridge took place from 1971 about one kilometer upstream and extended until 1977; during this time, road traffic was diverted via the Newell Toll Bridge, built in 1905 in the south-west of East Liverpool.

description

The Chester Bridge was designed as a suspension bridge made of cast and wrought iron with a truss reinforcement girder. The span between the H- pylons was 215 meters as well as the abutments 128 meters on the Chester side and 110 meters on the East Liverpool side where a 43 meter long trestle bridge of steel joined as driveway. The stiffening girder had a gradient of about 4% between the abutments and the pylons and had a clear height of 27 meters at low water in the horizontal middle section . The truss was about 6.1 meters wide and high and ran two strips with integrated tram tracks. On the downstream side, it also had a 2.3-meter-wide footpath on side arms. The total length of the bridge was 531 meters.

Schematic drawing of the Chester Bridge over the Ohio from 1897. The suspension cables of the suspension bridge with truss reinforcement girders are anchored in the abutments , indicated by dashed lines. Figures in the Anglo-American units of feet (′) and inches (″).

The stiffening beam was carried by two steel cables , each 18.6 cm in diameter, made up of seven 7 cm individual strands. The cables ran over the two 32-meter-high iron pylons, which were erected on approximately 16-meter-high stone pillars, with a foundation area of ​​18 m × 7 m. The ends of the cables were anchored at the base of the respective abutments in which they were set in concrete. The bridge was almost completely dismantled in 1970, only the abutment in East Liverpool at the end of 1st Street has been preserved and was expanded as a viewing platform.

literature

Web links

Commons : Chester Bridge (Ohio River)  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseph A. Comm: Rock Springs Park. Arcadia Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7385-8556-7 , p. 13 and 67.
  2. ↑ Chester Bridge. Chester, West Virginia (Page 6). Laurel Hollow Park, Newell, West Virginia. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  3. ^ Brian Butko: Greetings from the Lincoln Highway: America's First Coast-To-Coast Road. Stackpole Books, 2013, ISBN 978-0-8117-4300-6 , pp. 78-83.
  4. ^ The Original Chester Bridge. East Liverpool Historical Society. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  5. ↑ Chester Bridge. Chester, West Virginia (Page 1). Laurel Hollow Park, Newell, West Virginia. Retrieved July 16, 2018.
  6. ^ A b c Hermann Laub: Suspension Bridge over the Ohio River at East Liverpool, O. In: Engineering News. Vol. 37, No. 13, 1897, pp. 198 f.
  7. ↑ Chester Bridge. Chester, West Virginia (Page 2). Laurel Hollow Park, Newell, West Virginia. Retrieved July 16, 2018.