Rachel Carson Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Rachel Carson Bridge | |
|---|---|
 From south bank of the Allegheny, looking NE, oblique view of roadway and south tower, showing eyebar links for main suspenders and roadway suspenders, as well as main compressive stiffening girders dividing roadway from sidewalks |
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| Official name | Rachel Carson Bridge |
| Carries | Ninth Street |
| Longest span | 410 feet (125 m) |
| Total length | 840 feet (256 m) spans (main and 2 215 side spans) 995 feet (303 m) with approaches |
| Width | 38 ft roadway (formerly 2 vehicle, 2 tramway tracks, now 2 wide vehicle lanes) 10 ft sidewalks (outside the compressive plate girder) or total 62 ft |
| Vertical clearance | above 78 ft towers |
| Clearance below | deck is 40.3 ft above Emsworth Dam normal pool level (710 ft above sea level) |
| Opening date | 26 November 1926 |
Rachel Carson Bridge, also known as the Ninth Street Bridge, spans the Allegheny River in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Named for the naturalist Rachel Carson, a Pittsburgh native, it is one of three parallel bridges called The Three Sisters, the others being the Roberto Clemente Bridge and the Andy Warhol Bridge. The Three Sisters are self-anchored suspension bridges and are significant because they are the only trio of nearly identical bridges—as well as the first self-anchored suspension spans—built in the United States.
The bridge was renamed on Earth Day, April 22, 2006, after years of lobbying by Esther Barazzone, president of Chatham University, the alma mater of the renown environmentalist. Carson was born in 1907 in Springdale, Pennsylvania in a farmhouse 18 miles up the Allegheny River, now the Rachel Carson Homestead.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Ninth Street Bridge in the Structurae database
- entry at pghbridges.com
- entry at BridgeMeister.com
[edit] References
- Jerome L. Sherman (2006). Carson Bridge Dedication: story by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved April 23, 2006.
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