Spring Garden Street Bridge
Spring Garden Street Bridge is a highway bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, that crosses the Schuylkill River below Fairmount Dam. It connects West Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It is the fourth bridge at this location.
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1st bridge: The Colossus
As early as 1693, a ferry operated, crossing the Schuylkill River at Fairmount, the hill on which the Philadelphia Museum of Art now stands.[1] Being upstream of the others, this was called the Upper Ferry.
For the Upper Ferry site, bridgebuilder Louis Wernwag designed "The Colossus", the longest single-span wooden bridge in the United States. Construction began in April 1812, and it opened on January 7, 1813. A double-arched-truss with a clear span of 340 feet (103.6 m), it was a marvel of engineering for its time. Also called the "Colossus of Fairmount", the "Upper Ferry Bridge", and the "Lancaster Schuylkill Bridge", the tollbridge was part of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike. It was destroyed by fire September 1, 1838.[2]
Thomas Birch painted at least two views of the bridge, and one of them was made into an 1813 engraving by Jacob J. Plocher. This "Upper Ferry Bridge" engraving was copied frequently on Staffordshire china.[3]
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"Schuylkill Waterworks" (1835), with "The Colossus" in the background.
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A View of Fairmount and the Waterworks by John Rubens Smith 1835.jpg
"A View of Fairmount and the Waterworks" (1835) by John Rubens Smith.
2nd bridge: Wire Bridge at Fairmount
Five miles upstream from Fairmount, iron manufacturers Josiah White and Erksine Hazard built a wire-cable footbridge in 1816. Though a modest structure – 407 feet (124 m) in length with a suspended walkway 18 inches (0.46 m) wide – and a temporary one – it stood for less than a year – the Spider Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill is thought to have been the first wire-cable suspension bridge in history.[4]
Twenty-five years later, permanent wire-cable suspension bridges had been built in France and Switzerland. To replace "The Colossus," Charles Ellet, Jr. designed the first major wire-cable suspension bridge in the United States.[5] The 358-foot-long (109 m) "Wire Bridge at Fairmount" was commissioned by the City of Philadelphia, and opened to traffic on January 2, 1842. It had no toll, and stood for over thirty years.[6]
Ellet would go on to design the 1,010-foot (310 m) Wheeling Suspension Bridge (1847–49); and the first Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge (1847–48), which was abandoned before completion.
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Suspension bridge, Philadelphia, by Kilburn Brothers 2.jpg
Wire Bridge at Fairmount.
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On the Schuylkil (Schuylkill), Pennsylvania, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg
Wire Bridge from mouth of Schuylkill Canal.
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Wire bridge, Fairmount, by Newell, R., d. 1897.jpg
Wire Bridge from mouth of Schuylkill Canal.
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Wire bridge at Fairmount (Instantenous), from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg
Wire Bridge from Schuylkill River.
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South from River Drive, by Cremer, James, 1821-1893.jpg
Wire Bridge from Boathouse Row.
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Wire bridge on the Schuylkill River, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg
Wire Bridge from Boathouse Row.
3rd bridge: Callowhill Street Bridge
The Callowhill Street Bridge was designed by Jacob H. Linville, engineer, and built by the Keystone Bridge Company, 1874-75. A double-decker bridge that carried passengers, vehicles and streetcars on its upper deck and trains (later removed) on its lower, it was a Whipple truss of cast and wrought iron, 350 feet (110 m) long and 48 feet (15 m) wide. The arches between the decks were decorative and removed circa 1900; the ornate railings were removed by 1910. It was demolished in 1964.[7]
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1875 Keystone Bridge Company Ad (cropped).jpg
Callowhill Street Bridge in an 1875 advertisement.
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View in Fairmount Park. Lower deck, Callowhill St. bridge, by Hemple, A. H. (Alfred H.).jpg
Callowhill Street Bridge, lower deck.
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Callowhill Street Bridge 1910 (cropped).jpg
Callowhill Street Bridge in 1910.
4th bridge: Spring Garden Street Bridge
The current bridge was designed by Richard Wisniewski of Philadelphia, and completed in 1965. It carries West Spring Garden Street over the Pennsylvania Railroad lines, the Schuylkill Expressway, the Schuylkill River, and the Schuylkill River Trail. The West River Drive Bridge crosses diagonally beneath it, carrying the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive over the Schuylkill River.
See also
- List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania
- List of crossings of the Schuylkill River
Notes
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- ↑ Scharf & Westcott, p. 2145.
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References
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-86, "Callowhill Street Bridge"
- Pages with broken file links
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- Bridges in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Bridges over the Schuylkill River
- Bridges completed in 1813
- Bridges completed in 1842
- Bridges completed in 1875
- Bridges completed in 1965
- Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania
- Road bridges in Pennsylvania
- Former toll bridges in Pennsylvania