Pittsburgh’s Charles Anderson Bridge closed to vehicles indefinitely pending restorationPittsburgh’s Swindell Bridge closed to vehicles indefinitely pending restoration
Pittsburgh isn’t alone in being home to bridges on the verge of collapsing. This year marks the 200th anniversary of London’s Hammersmith Bridge, which has been closed to vehicular traffic for five years after cracks threatening the stability of the bridge were discovered. The bridge was temporarily closed to pedestrians and cyclists crossing over and river traffic crossing under, but those restrictions have been lifted. Except cyclists are required to dismount and walk across. (Transport for London: Hammersmith Bridge) Work is slowly being done on the bridge, but there is no estimate for when it will be fully functional again. Part of the delay appears due to the decentralization of bridge ownership in London that puts the burden of costly bridge maintenance and repairs on local councils that don’t have sufficient funds (The Standard, July 5, 2023). Much as I enjoy walking across bridges, I would have second thoughts about walking one where the vibrations caused by a cyclist might increase the damage to the bridge.
LeapFrog! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2004. I missed my turn on my way home from Presque Isle in 2022 and stumbled upon “On Golden Pond” by Chuck Benson and Bill Lechner. A few months later, I found Ami H.’s map and list of the frogs, which enabled me to intentionally find frogs on future trips to Erie.
In the 2024 Bridge Madness Tournament, 16 pedestrian bridges go pier-to-pier in a reader’s choice tournament to pick the best one. This year’s tournament features pedestrian bridges within Pittsburgh that cross over roads or railroads. Beginning March 1, you will be able to vote for your favorite bridge in each bracket. The champion bridge will be announced on March 29. Don’t forget to come back each week to vote your favorite bridge to #1!
Each round of voting will go live at 8 AM on the scheduled Friday and close at noon the following Wednesday. The schedule is:
March 1 – Sweet Sixteen
March 8 – Elite Eight
March 15 – Final Four
March 22 – Championship
March 29 – Winner announced
The bridges are divided into two conferences: Pedestrian Bridges over Railroads and Pedestrian Bridges over Roads.
Pedestrian Bridges over Railroads
From east to west, the bridges that pass over railroads are:
the North Lang Avenue Pedestrian Bridge
the East Liberty Station Pedestrian Bridge
the Spahr Street Pedestrian Bridge
the South Graham Street Pedestrian Bridge
the Melanchton Street Pedestrian Bridge
an abandoned pedestrian bridge in Hazelwood
the South 15th Street Pedestrian Bridge
the South 10th Street Pedestrian Bridge
Pedestrian Bridges over Roads
From east to west, the bridges that pass over roads are:
the Eliza Furnace Trail Bridges over Swinburne Street
LeapFrog! was a fundraiser in Erie, PA, in 2004. I found the frog above on a trip to Erie in 2012. Like some of Pittsburgh’s dinosaurs, I cannot match it to one of the original frogs in the official book.
In 2012, I experienced a narrow band of Erie along State Street from downtown to the waterfront. While walking around in this area looking for churches, I found some frogs. At the time, I did not make a note of the locations where I found them.
In 2023, I found that Ami H. maintains a list and map of the locations of the LeapFrog! frogs. I believe the frog that I found in 2012 is the one tagged on Ami’s map at the Children’s Museum. It has been repainted and become “Experience Frog.” (I still can’t find a match for it in the official LeapFrog! book.)
Thirteen months ago, Pittsburgh’s Fern Hollow Bridge reconstruction was declared finished eleven months after the previous bridge had collapsed. I scoffed at this announcement at the time as the side walk wasn’t yet open and the new bridge was closed again for a month during the summer to “complete all remaining bridge work.” (Mayor’s Press Release, June 8, 2023). However, David McCullough in The Great Bridge points out that there is never a clear completion date for a new bridge. He notes that when the Brooklyn Bridge was “finished:”
There was no one moment, no particular day, when he [Washington Roebling] could have said as much, nor would there be. Bridges did not end that way. There was always something more to finish up, some last detail to attend to. The final touches at Cincinnati, for example, had dragged on for nearly six months after the opening ceremonies and it looked as though the same might happen here. (505)
David McCullough, “The Great Bridge”
The Fern Hollow Bridge, therefore, was simply following the pattern established by other greater bridges. The bridge itself now seems to be fully complete and operational: all the multi-modal options to cross are open, the trail underneath is also open, and people crossing over or passing under can experience the public art installations. However, while the physical infrastructure has been repaired, the human physical and emotional fallout from the collapse continues.
Some of the people injured in the collapse are working with attorneys to seek transparency and a way to move forward following their experience. This fall, a judge ordered the release of documents relating to the bridge and its collapse (TribLive, November 16, 2023; TribLive, November 28, 2023; WPXI, November 28, 2023; WTAE, November 28, 2023; CBS News, November 29, 2023). In December, PennDOT released hundreds of pages of documents related to the collapse (CBS News, December 23, 2023).
News
Below are the news updates on the Fern Hollow Bridge and other bridge maintenance and replacement efforts in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
A year and a half after the City created a Commission on Infrastructure Asset Reporting and Investment, Mayor Gainey finally submitted nominations for the board seats to City Council (WESA, July 18, 2023). Council approved 12 commissioners on July 25, 2023, one commissioner on September 19, 2023, and one commissioner on December 18, 2023. The commission had its first meeting on December 5, 2023, (City of Pittsburgh Tweet, November 28, 2023; WPXI, December 5, 2023) but it hasn’t been added yet to the city’s website listing all Boards and Commissions. Presumably it will be added soon so that the agenda and minutes of the commission will be publicly available the same as all other city commissions. There have been no press leases regarding the long-overdue formation of this commission. I’ve only found the commissioners names by searching the City’s Legislative Center for “Appointment-Requiring Vote.” The approved commissioners are:
Lisa Frank
Zachary Workman
Tyler Watts
Tom Melisko
Patrick Cornell
Greg Bernarding
Eric Setzler
Doris Carson Williams
Darrin Kelley
Councilwoman Erika Strassburger
Chief Darryl Jones
Andy Waple
Samuel Miclot
Michele Miller Beener
The final designs for the rehabilitation of the Charles Anderson Bridge and the Panther Hollow Overpass are nearing completion and bids are expected to be released this month. (Pittsburgh Engage project page)
Pittsburgh’s Swindell Bridge, which closed initially from July to September 2022 due to falling debris, continues to have problems and the city is providing little to no information at this time. The expectation was that repairs over the summer would enable the bridge to fully reopen to traffic. Instead the latest repairs seem to have uncovered more issues. There is no evidence of a plan yet for addressing the situation. (TribLive, July 7, 2023; WPXI, August 7, 2023; Pittsburgh Engage page)
The “complete overhaul” of the South Negley Avenue Bridge announced in 2022 (CBS, February 25, 2022) has not been mentioned since and there is no project page for it to indicate that plans are in the works for it. The obvious deterioration on this bridge and lack of movement on repairs leaves the way open for speculation on whether we will have another bridge disaster in our city sooner rather than later.
Construction began on the 30th Street Bridge rehabilitation in April 2023 and finished in August. (WPXI, August 21, 2023; Pittsburgh Engage page)
Rehabilitation on the Swinburne Bridge remains on pause until after the Charles Anderson Bridge is reopened as the Swinburne Bridge is part of the detour route. (Pittsburgh Engage page)
Preliminary engineering is ongoing for the rehabilitation of the 28th Street Bridge. (Pittsburgh Engage page)
Temporary repairs, including protection from falling debris, were done on the California Avenue Bridge. Preliminary engineering is scheduled to start this year. Residents remain concerned about the falling debris and the condition of the bridge. This bridge is another possible candidate for the next bridge disaster in the city. (CBS, January 2, 2023; WPXI, June 29, 2023; WPXI, December 5, 2023; TribLive, September 8, 2023; Pittsburgh Engage page)
Photos: Other Bridges
Historic Pittsburgh Bridge Disasters
According to Bob Regan’s 2006 book “The Bridges of Pittsburgh,” Pittsburgh is no stranger to bridge disasters:
1845 – The original Smithfield Street Bridge burned down
1851 – The 16th Street Bridge burned down
1865 – Two spans of the 16th Street Bridge was washed away in a flood
late 1880s – The 6th Street/St. Clair Street Bridge burned down
1903 – The Wabash Bridge collapsed during construction
1918 – The 16th Street Bridge burned down (again)
1921 – The 30th Street Bridge burned down
1927 – The Mount Washington Roadway Bridge collapsed during construction
Map of bridges discussed in the Bridge Collapse series:
Walking toward the spires in Scranton, PA, I started and ended in Downtown and explored a portion of the Medical and University neighborhoods. Like Pittsburgh and Buffalo, the few religious buildings I found in the heart of downtown remained active. In the adjoining neighborhoods, I found several active religious buildings and others that had been converted to new uses.
Of the 10 total buildings built for religion that I encountered, six remained active while four had been converted to secular uses. One former synagogue is now used for housing. Two former churches are now university buildings. One former church is now a children’s library. This sampling seemed representative enough to contribute to my observations on trends in adaptive reuse and population change. Scranton has experienced a 47% drop in population since its peak population in the 1930s. Based on this information, I expected to find several vacant and reused religious buildings. The surprise finding was that none of them appeared vacant when I got out on the ground.
I also noticed several religious buildings as I drove through the southern neighborhoods on my way home. Because I was driving, I didn’t have the ability to stop and take notes or photos of these buildings, but those that I noticed appeared to be either active religious buildings or active in a secular reuse.
The lack of vacant buildings may perhaps be explained by the recent population trends. While overall, the population is significantly down from the peak, in the last couple decades the decline in population has slowed and the 2020 census showed a miniscule increase in population. It is, so far, the only one of my comparison cities that had a major population drop and a recent increase in population. While Bethlehem and Stroudsburg also saw population increases in the 2020 census, they did not have the same steep drop since the peak population that Scranton and most of the other cities in this survey did.
City
Population Loss Since Peak (Peak Year)
Population Change in 2020
Status of Religious Buildings
Bethlehem
1% (1960)
0.86%
Primarily active sacred uses
Erie
26% (1960)
-6.82%
Primarily active sacred uses
Homestead
85% (1920)
-9.04%
Significant numbers closed or converted to secular uses
Pittsburgh
55% (1950)
-0.96%
Significant numbers closed or converted to secular uses
Scranton
47% (1930)
0.30%
Significant numbers converted to secular uses
Stroudsburg
14% (1950)
6.47%
Primarily active sacred uses
Wilkinsburg
49% (1950)
-10%
Significant numbers closed or converted to secular uses
In addition to the religious and former religious buildings, I found 2 civic buildings and 1 school that sported spires.
When I visit a town, I have a habit of searching out the bridges and the spires to get a feel for the place. Buffalo is one of the most recent places where I applied this approach. Given the size of Buffalo (52 square miles with a population over 275,000), I wasn’t able to explore enough of the city on this trip to add to observations of population trends and adaptive reuse of the religious buildings. So instead, I focused on the spires I could see in downtown. Comparing this to Pittsburgh, where the downtown also has several spires and where I have done a pretty thorough survey of the entire city, I realized that neither Pittsburgh’s nor Buffalo’s downtowns would be indicative of the city-wide trends of adaptive reuse of sacred buildings. The development pressures of a downtown are significantly different from the outlying neighborhoods. In both cities, the religious buildings that survived the development pressures of a downtown have remained in active use.
What struck me while walking toward the spires in downtown Buffalo was how I typically eliminate or discount spires for secular buildings that I find while on these searches. In Buffalo, I felt that if I’m calling my approach “the story of the spires” leaving out the secular spires leaves out a part of the story.1 The secular spires that caught my eye were for buildings across a spectrum of uses. The Erie County building (1872); a former US Post Office (1901), now a part of SUNY Buffalo’s campus; and the former headquarters of the Buffalo General Electric Company (1912), now an office building, were the three secular spires that caught my eye. These three buildings underscore the larger trend in monumental architecture passing from religious to government to corporate buildings.
Below, I share photos of both the sacred and the secular spires that I found in downtown Buffalo.
Sacred Spires
Secular Spires
For those of you who are word nerds, I double checked the definition of spire as I typically only use it when talking about religious buildings, so I wanted to make sure that the term applies to the same kind of structure whatever the building’s use is. In doing this, I got the confirmation I wanted, but also discovered that Merriam-Webster’s #1 definition for spire is: “a slender tapering blade or stalk (as of grass).” ↩︎
urbantraipsing 