Tag Archives: bridges
Building the Bridge
I’ve walked numerous bridges and yet I didn’t try building a bridge until my fifth Architectural Dessert Masterpiece. After the near disaster of the skyscraper, this one succeeded beyond my best hopes. With a deck made of shortbread, piers of pretzels, and a non-structural suspension system of wafers and Twizzlers, this one was so structurally sound that it was a challenge to split it into serving pieces.
Layers of the City: Chicago Edition
The first place to show me how a city can be stacked like a layer cake, Chicago provided ample opportunities to explore all levels of the city. The experience of noticing the expansion joints in roads that I assumed were on solid ground opened my eyes to the possibilities of stacking uses.
Underground Life
A vacant lot two stories below street level solved the mystery of the expansion joints, by exposing the inner guts. Two more roads sit below street level to segregate trash pick-up and deliveries from the flow of traffic. These lover levels also provide some opportunities for parking without monopolizing valuable real estate above. Retail shops connected by pedestrian passageways are also interspersed in these layers.
River Life
At the same elevation as the “underground life,” the Chicago River flows through the heart of the city. On and along the river are a variety of activities. Pedestrian paths, cafes, housing, parks, industrial uses, and homeless encampments line the shores. Meanwhile, the river abounds with ducks, boat tours, water taxis, construction staging, and marinas.
Street Level
Back up on the street level, life buzzes. Vehicular and pedestrian traffic rush passed, occasionally pealing off to visit the numerous shops, offices, museums, restaurants, cafes, parks, and trails.
Pie in the Sky
Yet, more life looms above. Several of the skyscrapers have penthouse, or nearly penthouse, restaurants. Others have rooftop observation platforms. Between these and the street are many other opportunities for enjoying life including a religious sanctuary, the “L”, gardens, art, pedestrian bridges, and of course, offices, apartments, hotel rooms, and shops.
Unlike Pittsburgh, in Chicago, the public is welcome in some form on every level to gain a full experience of the city.
Pittsburgh’s Bragging Rights
I mentioned previously that I totally geek out over maps. I recently came across a fascinating “new” map called The “Z” Atlas & Map of Pittsburgh, PA, and Mount Oliver, PA. I am adding it to the Sanborn Maps and GM Hopkins Maps as a go-to for studying the changes Pittsburgh went through in the 20th Century. The “Z” Atlas was published in 1952. There are two things about this map that caught my eye as setting it apart from others during my initial perusal.
First, in the street index, it identifies which streets have unusual addressing. Pittsburgh is known for some unique addressing situations. For example, there is a block where houses built before WWII have 1300 numbers and the ones built after WWII have 1400 numbers, even though they are intermixed. This atlas shows that the post WWII houses were built after 1952 because the address numbers on that street weren’t wonky yet.
Second, this map claims that “Pittsburgh has more streets than any City in the World. You will find EVERY ONE of them in this ‘Z’ Atlas and Map!”
“Preposterous,” I said, when I first read that claim. Pittsburgh’s land area is small compared to other large metropoles. It does not make Wikipedia’s current list of the 150 largest US cities by land area. Without digging into census data, I assume that many of the old cities (ex. New York City, Chicago, Cleveland), if not most of the 150 listed, likely were of a similar size in the 1950s as today. How could it be possible for Pittsburgh to have more streets than these cities that are significantly larger?
Then it hit me. It is possible by the same token that makes it possible for Pittsburgh to have more bridges than any other city in the world, more steps than any other city, and the steepest paved street in the world: topography.
Pittsburgh’s many hills, ravines, cliffs, and rivers mean there are few long streets and many short streets. Maybe after all, Pittsburgh did have more streets than any other City in the World in 1952. Reading more of the “Z” Atlas, it elsewhere explains that Pittsburgh had over 6,000 streets at the time of the map’s publication. That number does include the numerous “paper” streets that were surveyed and mapped, “but never built or even marked in the dirt.”
Many of these paper streets still exist today causing headaches for the City and its citizens, but some have been vacated and turned over to private ownership. Between that and the rise of mega-cities since the 1950s, I won’t say that Pittsburgh can still claim more streets than any other city. A quick Google search showed that the question of what city has the most number of streets is not as well discussed as what city has the most bridges. Perhaps a more ambitious person than myself could run an analysis to see whether Pittsburgh still has more streets than any other City in the World. (Don’t forget to count the step streets!)
In Search of Roebling
Last summer’s search for Roebling bridges (see Market St, Steubenville and Wheeling Suspension Bridge) came to a successful end as a golden sunset spread over Cincinnati. The reason we struck out earlier in the day is that the Cincinnati-Covington Bridge is one of the two remaining Roebling suspension bridges. The other is, of course, his most famous bridge: the Brooklyn Bridge. The first of Roebling’s five suspension bridges was built in Pittsburgh at the site of the current Smithfield Street Bridge, but lasted less than 40 years before the increased river and road traffic made it obsolete.
Between Roebling’s two remaining bridges, I found the Cincinnati bridge more appealing. Its character feels like it would fit right in on the Thames in London. I also appreciated the engaging green spaces at either end. The birds liked this bridge, too.
Sunset from the Roebling Bridge
Wheeling Suspension Bridge
I had a blast with the Wheeling Suspension Bridge. First, I was fascinated by how it was squeezed between the buildings on the mainland side. Second, as an early suspension bridge, it has many parts to ensure that it would stay up, which provided more than the average opportunity to attempt to be artistic in photographing it.
The Wheeling Suspension Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world when it was built. Charles Ellet won the competition to design the bridge over John Roebling. There are some similarities in style between this bridge and Roebling’s Brooklyn Bridge with the stone piers and suspension ropes. Before we walked across this one and read the plaque, we were under the impression that it was a Roebling bridge.
Wheeling has two different trends of riverfront uses than those found in Stuebenville. On one side of the river (island side), is riverfront housing of surprisingly old construction. On the other side (city side), is a modern riverfront park with bike trail.
Big Dam Bridge
The name says it all. This bridge was built as the longest pedestrian- and bicycle-built bridge in the country spanning 4,226 feet across the Arkansas River, connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock. It is part of the Arkansas River Trail.
On a trip to Arkansas this winter, I discovered this bridge and naturally had to add it to my list of bridges I’ve walked across. The intention of my trip to Arkansas was to visit friends but also to get a break from the cold northern winter by heading south. When I bought my tickets in January, the Little Rock region was having 60 degree weather. A month later when I arrived, the high was 26.
View of Pinnacle Mountain from the Big Dam Bridge
View toward downtown Little Rock showing Rebsaman Park
By the time we reached the half-way point of the bridge, we were frozen stiff. The farther we got on the bridge the stronger the wind got, probably creating a wind chill factor closer to 20 degrees or less. After admiring the views from the midpoint for a minute, the cold and wind forced us to turn back toward the car.
While I didn’t make it all the way across, I can still say I’ve been on one of the Top 10 Bridge Travel Sites in the US. Now I just have to find the other 9 sites.
Heth’s Run Bridge: Redux
Heth’s Run Bridge, the first bridge I posted about in my Pittsburgh bridges project, is scheduled to be replaced by the end of next year. The notice to proceed was expected to be issued last week with construction beginning on Sept. 24 with the installation of a temporary road around the bridge, through the zoo’s parking lot. According to the schedule that was passed out at a community meeting at the end of August, the bridge is expected to close with all car traffic being diverted to the temporary road on Nov. 1st. Due to the turning radius constraints with the temporary road, trucks will not be permitted and will instead be by way of the Highland Park Bridge, Route 28 and the 62nd Street Bridge. If all goes according to schedule the bridge should reopen to all traffic on October 1, 2014. Additional road work will continue through October. After final inspections, the project is expected to be officially completed by December 8, 2014.
This is a PennDOT project expected to cost over $18.5 million and is definitely needed. As I discuss in my Heth’s Run Bridge Part II and Highland Park Bridge posts, the sidewalks here are in desperate need of repair and the proportion of sidewalk to road across the bridge is at least 50 years out of date. All this is going to be addressed in the reconstruction. The new bridge is going to have two lanes in each direction to match the roadway on either end. Additional features of the new bridge will be decorative railing, period lighting, entrance pylons, and “architectural features on the abutments with form liners” (which I believe refers to new urns). At the community meeting, it was mentioned that the current urns will be saved and kept in a warehouse until a new home is found for them.
In addition to the bridge, about 870 feet of Butler Street are going to be reconstructed including sidewalks. My understanding is that this is the part of Butler from the Heth’s Run Bridge to the ramps of the Highland Park Bridge, which should take care of my complaints about the condition of the sidewalk for those of us trying to cross the Highland Park Bridge without a car. This should also clear up the confusion for the outbound traffic of whether this part of the road is one lane or two as the plans include removing the “kink” from the existing alignment.
New signals and ADA ramps will be installed at the intersections of Butler with One Wild Place and with Baker Streets.
Another major part of the project is the excavation under the bridge to an elevation of 762. According to GoogleEarth, the bridge is at an elevation of 800 ft. I’m not sure if this will restore the bridge to its exact historic height, but it will be close (see the photo of the previous bridge from 1912). This will also pave the way for connecting this area to the proposed Allegheny Riverfront Green Boulevard project.
This project will no doubt cause some inconveniences during the construction process, but the construction of the temporary road will significantly cut down on this even though it adds over a month to the process. Imagine instead, everyone having to go on the truck detour or all the Zoo traffic coming down Morningside Ave and Baker Street instead of One Wild Place and Butler Street. That would be a true nightmare. Thank you, PennDOT and the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium for the temporary road. Thank you, PennDOT and any other funders, Sen. Jim Ferlo, Rep. Dom Costa, and anyone else who had a hand in helping bring about this long overdue project.
I can’t wait to walk over the new bridge when it’s finished!
More information about the project including the design of the temporary road can be found here: http://morningside-pa.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/hethsrunbridge.pdf
Safety while Traipsing
The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation, a non-profit community development organization in Pittsburgh, is raising funds to buy back guns. The goal is to get unwanted guns out of the community where they may be stolen and used in a crime or found by a child and played with, causing injury and death.
In the process of raising funds and talking with different people, it’s become clear that not all guns are bad. Some guns are very useful such as soldering guns, caulking guns, staple guns, salad shooters, glue guns, nail guns, heat guns, cookie guns, water guns, and cameras (which shoot). Check out the links for each of these guns to see how they can improve communities (more links will be added over the next few weeks).
As an urban traisper, it is important to feel safe as I walk around exploring the city. I have chosen not to walk the bridges in certain neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, because of safety concerns. I was excited when I joined the staff of the BGC to hear that they were working on planning a gun buyback to reduce the chances of gun violence in their neighborhoods. Maybe our work will make a small difference and help lead to broader changes that will improve the safety of the currently troubled areas or those perceived as troubled.
For more about the Gun Buyback Initiative, check out our Razoo page. While you’re there, please consider giving a donation. We hope to reach at least $15,000 by August 31. Thank you!
The Point…of Gathering
A renewed downtown Pittsburgh attraction is a great place on a hot day. With last weekend’s temperatures reaching near 90, the revitalized Fountain on the point of Point State Park was a popular place to be.
The new “wading” portion of the fountain was enjoyed by families, friends, couples, and pets.
The fountain was also a gathering point for bikers enjoying the Three Rivers Heritage Trail System and Pittsburgh’s bike rental program and kayakers taking advantage of Venture Outdoors’ Kayak Pittsburgh rentals.
The Point is one of the key geographical features that influenced the creation and history of Pittsburgh. With the rebirth of the fountain, it will continue to be an important attraction in the city.
urbantraipsing 