Bloomfield Bridge Constructed Rapidly.
Pittsburgh Sun, 19 November 1914.

Bloomfield's new bridge is the longest, the highest and one of the most expensive structures of the kind that ever has been erected by the city. It took about one year to build it, the finishing touches having been put on it only last week, when the asphalt division of the department of public works laid the last square yard of paving, and the electrical division closed in the wiring on the lighting system. The bridge is a series of simple decked trusses supported on steel trestles with one long cantilever span supporting a suspended truss.

It carries a new highway from the Grant boulevard to the Lawrenceville-Bloomfield district at a point near the end of Cayuga street. The main portions of the structure span the Pennsylvania and Junction railroad trackage. The bridge carries a wide roadway and two sidewalks. It was designed by the city's bureau of bridges and erected at a cost approximating $450,000. The steel work was erected rapidly and the erection was accomplished without a single serious accident.

The roadway has a slight grade approaching the boulevard. Its completion obviates the necessity of a detour of one and one-half miles for all traffic between the two sections of the city which it serves. At the present time there is a proposition to erect a structure which is almost identical across the East street hollow to Spring Hill on the Northside.

The bridge connects Grant boulevard and Liberty avenue, opening in Liberty avenue at Main street and in the boulevard at Ridgway street. The citizens of the Bloomfield district have been fighting for such a bridge for the last 12 years.

The structure is 2,100 feet long, of which 1,740 feet is of steel construction. the balance concrete. The main span is 400 feet long, of cantilever construction, and consists of two cantilever arms, each 140 feet long, and one suspended span of 120 feet. [This] span is 185 feet above the tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Pittsburg Junction Railroad, which it crosses. The structural work embraces 3,614 tons of steel, with 6,000 cubic yards of concrete and 8,400 lineal feet of concrete piling. The approximate cost is $500,000. The bridge was designed by T. K. Wilkerson, division engineer, division of bridges, Bureau of Engineering of the City of Pittsburgh.

The ordinance for the bridge was passed by council January 7, 1913, and signed by former Mayor Magee the following day. The contract for the structural steel was let in December, 1913, to the Fort Pitt Bridge Works, this firm being successful over several other bidders.

When it is considered that the big structure is being turned over to the city complete in every detail in eight months from the letting of this contract, some idea may be had of the resourcefulness of the contractors and their ability to turn out big work in a minimum time.

Following is a list of several large bridges and other structures recently completed by this live Pittsburg concern: Cantilever bridge over Ohio River at Sewickley, Pa.; cantilever bridge over Allegheny River at Oil City, Pa.; bridges over Monongahela River at Monongahela, Pa., and Brownsville, Pa.; cantilever bridge, Davis avenue, Northside, Pittsburg; Wilmot street, arch bridge, Schenley Park, Pittsburg; bascule bridges for Salmon Bay waterway improvements, Washington, for the Northern Pacific and Great Northern railways; Boston Elevated Railway, Forest Hills extension; Transfer bridge for Baltimore &am; Ohio Railroad, Staten Island, N. Y.; bridges for Bronx improvements, New York, New Haven & Hudson River Railroad Company; bridges for elimination of grade crossings at Newark, Cleveland, Chicago and Pittsburg. Also many other bridges of the Pennsylvania, New York Central and other large railroad system. The Hoboken Terminal, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad and the greater part of the New York Central Hudson River Railroad Company, Forty-second Street Terminal, New York City, was also built by them, as well as many of the open hearth plants, rollings mills, glass factories, coal tipples, etc. in the United States.

Last updated: 25 March 1999.