Waco Suspension Bridge
Opened on January 7, 1870, the Waco Suspension Bridge ( Waco Suspension Bridge ) spans the Brazos River in Waco in McLennan County in the US state of Texas . It was the first larger suspension bridge in Texas and was at the time the largest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi with a main span of 145 m (475 feet).
Originally, cattle were driven from Texas to Kansas via the Chisholm Trail at this point by ferry, until a consortium of citizens of the city (members of a Masonic lodge) decided to build the bridge. After the Civil War in 1866, the Waco Bridge Company was founded in the Reconstruction Era and the New York engineer Thomas M. Griffith commissioned the construction, which received the cables from Roebling in Trenton , New Jersey. The material was transported from Galveston (Texas) by ship to Bryan (Texas) and from there on ox carts. At that time the only steel construction companies were in the coastal port of Galveston. The actual construction took place in 1868/69. The cost, originally estimated at $ 40,000, increased and a. due to problems with the foundation to about 140,000 dollars.
The bridge was wide enough to allow two carriages to pass each other (road width 5.5 m). The suspension bridge had two characteristic double towers, each connected with two stone connecting arches. The steel construction of the sides consisted of a V-shaped framework (pony truss). A fee for cattle drive and passage (around $ 25,000 annually in revenue) soon brought the construction costs back in.
After completion, the company had a monopoly of 25 years for the construction of bridges 5 miles around Waco, which was also confirmed by the court. The company sold the long-amortized bridge to the county in 1889 for $ 75,000, eliminating the fees. McLennan County then sold the bridge for a symbolic $ 1 to Waco on condition that they take care of the maintenance in the future. The bridge contributed significantly to the growth of the city of Waco. In 1913/14 a large part of the steel structure including cables was replaced by the Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Company. Only the masonry of the towers is largely original.
Today the bridge is a Historic Monument on the National Register of Historic Places (1970) and a pedestrian bridge that connects Indian Spring Park and Martin Luther King Junior Park. Before 1971, car traffic also rolled over the bridge. Today it is the central point of many celebrations in Waco, including regularly on Independence Day.
In 1902 the Washington Avenue Bridge was opened as a further bridge, at that time the longest steel bridge in the USA with a field girder. It is also a historical monument.
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References and comments
- ↑ The largest suspension bridges in the USA were the Wheeling Suspension Bridge opened in 1849 over the Ohio with 308 m span, the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge from 1866 over the Ohio near Cincinnati with 322 m, the Lewiston – Queenston Suspension Bridge over the Niagara the Canadian border, which existed from 1851 to 1864 and had a span of 317 m, and the Niagara Clifton Bridge built in 1869 over the Niagara with a span of 384 m.
- ↑ owned by the famous bridge-building family around John August Roebling , who also received the order for the Brooklyn Bridge during the construction of the Waco Bridge , completed in 1883
Coordinates: 31 ° 33 '40 " N , 97 ° 7' 39" W.