Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Schuyler Heim Bridges across the Back Channel in San Pedro Bay

June 2015 (33.7661 Degrees, -118.2394 Degrees) Schuyler Heim Bridges

The photo above was taken 16 years ago of the new (gray) Badger Street Lift Railroad Bridge next to the old (green) Schuyler Heim Lift Bridge. Today, a new Schuyler Heim Bridge is being built and will be completed by the end of 2016 (see photo below).  The Ports were concerned that none of the bridges that carry vehicles on and off Terminal Island were designed to stay in service for the design earthquake. To address this concern, the new Schuyler Heim was allocated an additional 10% for an enhanced seismic design. Caltrans feels confident that all three bridges have a robust seismic design that should keep the highway bridges in service following a large earthquake. The two Ports handle 40% of the goods that move in and out of the U.S. so it's important to minimize disruptions to the transportation system. The Alameda Corridor allows trains to move from the Ports through Los Angeles without any at-grade crossings. Also, a new switching yard is being built next the Ports. With the new Schuyler Heim Bridge, truck traffic should also be able to move into and out of the Ports without disruptions.

Los Angeles County, California Bridges: Schuyler Heim Bridges across the Back Channel in San Pedro Bay by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Great Britain: Glengall Bridge

The Glengall Bridge is a pedestrian crossing at Millwall Dock on the Isle of Dogs. This bridge carries Pepper Street across a north-south channel in an area of five and six story condominiums. The odd thing about the Glengall Bridge is that it's almost identical to the structure in Van Gogh's painting Bridge at Arles in Southern France.

The Bridge at Arles was a hand-operated lift bridge. The beams at the top of the towers were weighted so they could swing up (over the channel), lifting the bridge deck out of the way (and blocking the roadway).

The Glengall Bridge isn't as evocative as the Bridge at Arles. Still, it's amusing once you are aware of the resemblance. However, I don't see a mechanism on the Glengall Bridge for lifting the deck. Perhaps it's not a working copy.

There's a lot of information on The Bridge at Arles on the Internet. I found an interesting blog by John Vanderslice that includes a photo of the bridge in the 'up' position.

Great Britain: Glengall Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Portland's Bridges: Hawthorne Bridge

There are four movable bridges crossing the Willamette River in midtown Portland. The Hawthorne Bridge is the southernmost of these bridges. It is the oldest lift bridge (built in 1910) operating in the United States and it's the oldest highway bridge and the busiest bicycle bridge in Portland.

The Hawthorne Bridge is a six span, 1382 ft long, truss bridge with a 244 ft long lift span. It has 49 ft of vertical clearance when it's closed and 159 ft when it's open. It replaced the second Madison Bridge, which was built in 1900 and destroyed by fire in 1902 (the bridge connects Madison Street to Hawthorne Blvd. in Portland). The 440 US ton counterweights are suspended from 165 ft tall towers. It was designed by John Waddell who invented the lift bridge (see comments) and designed the nearby Steel Bridge (see the September 12th posting). However, unlike the Steel Bridge, it has only a single deck with two lanes inside the truss and two lanes and wide bicycle lanes/sidewalks outside the truss (widened and restored in 1999). The bridge cost $511,000 and it's estimated to have a replacement cost of about $190 million.

Portland's Bridges: Hawthorne Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Portland's Bridges: Steel Bridge

The Steel Bridge (over the Willamette River in Portland, Oregon) is a very unusual 'telescoping lift bridge' that can raise its lower deck without disturbing traffic on its upper deck and it can raise both decks to allow for the passage of large vessels. In the closed position it provides about 26 ft of vertical clearance. With the lower deck raised it provides 72 ft of vertical clearance. With both decks raised it provides 162 ft of vertical clearance. It has independent counterweights to lift each span.

The Steel Bridge is also unusual for the variety of vehicles that it can accommodate on its two decks. In this photo we can see a light rail train traveling on the upper deck while three diesel locomotives are crossing on the lower deck. The average daily traffic includes 23000 trucks, buses, cars, and motorcycles, 200 light rail trains and trolleys, 40 freight and Amtrak trains, over 2000 bicycles, and uncounted pedestrians. It carries railroad, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic on the lower deck and highway, light rail, and streetcar traffic on its upper deck.

The Steel Bridge was designed by Waddel and Harrington (consultants from Kansas City) with support from the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company and the Union Pacific Railroad. The two railroad companies also built the bridge, which was completed in 1912. It replaced the previous Steel Bridge from 1888 that was so named because it had replaced an even earlier wrought iron bridge.

The Steel Bridge is composed of a 290 ft long steel Pratt truss on each side of the 211 ft long lift span. The superstructure is supported on short concrete piers on caisson foundations. Wikipedia has a nice website for this bridge that includes several drawings of the structure and the lift mechanism.

Portland's Bridges: Steel Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

New York City's Bridges: Broadway Bridge

The Broadway Bridge crosses over the Harlem River Ship Canal, which connects the Harlem River to the east with the Hudson River to the west. The bridge has a double deck with four traffic lanes and two sidewalks on the bottom and three sets of subway tracks on the top. The bridge provides 304 ft of horizontal clearance through the canal, 136 ft of vertical clearance when the bridge is open, and 24 ft of vertical clearance when the bridge is closed.

The current lift bridge was opened to subways in 1960, to vehicular traffic in 1962, but it couldn't be raised until 1964. Apparently, the need for tall vessels to navigate the Harlem River isn't very acute. I read that they only allow one bridge to open at a time, and during the summer several of the bridges have difficulty opening due to thermal expansion of the decks. One would need a very compelling reason (and a great deal of patience) to take a ship taller than 24 ft any distance along the river.

New York City's Bridges: Broadway Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

New York City's Bridges: Park Avenue (Metro North) Railroad Bridge

A shipping channel was dug in the 19th century by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the Harlem River and crossed by a succession of fixed and movable bridges. Today, the Harlem River is eight miles long (between the East and Hudson Rivers), it's about 18 ft deep at low tide, and it's about 350 ft wide. Most of the movable bridges cross at a skew, making the main span even longer, and so the piers were built in the river.

The current Park Avenue Bridge is the fourth movable bridge at this site and the first lift bridge. It was built between 1954 and 1956 alongside the older bridge. It carries four railroad tracks and has 25 ft of vertical clearance closed and 135 ft when it's open. The main span is 340 ft long. It was originally owned by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad and it's currently owned by Metro North.

New York City's Bridges: Park Avenue (Metro-North) Railroad Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

New York City's Bridges: Triborough Lift Bridge

This is the Manhattan arm of the Triborough Bridge. Robert Moses wanted it to cross the Harlem River at 103rd Street (a straight shot across Ward's Island into Queens) but a variety of pressures resulted in it being constructed at 125th Street instead. It was built to resemble the George Washington Suspension Bridge across the Hudson River (on the other side of Manhattan) with its tall, steel-laced towers.

Its a three-span bridge with a 310 ft lift span supported on 210 ft high towers and a 770 ft total length. In the closed position the deck has a 55 ft vertical clearance over the Harlem River and in the open position it is 135 ft above the river. The bridge carries six lanes of traffic and two sidewalks. It was originally going to be the world's heaviest lift bridge, but the designer, Othmar Ammann was able to reduce its weight by such means as replacing the concrete deck with asphalt on a steel deck. The Triborough Bridges were opened to traffic in 1936.

New York City's Bridges: Triborough Lift Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

New York City's Bridges: Ward's Island Bridge

The Harlem River flows along the east side of Manhattan, north of Ward's Island. At the river's mouth is Ward's Island Bridge (sometimes referred to as the Harlem River Pedestrian Bridge), the only footbridge across the Harlem River. This rather spindly-looking structure was designed by Othmar Ammann in 1939, but because steel wasn't available until after the war, construction didn't begin until 1949.

It's a lift bridge with counterweights to raise the 330 ft long center span to the top of the towers. In fact, the bridge is only used from April to October and the center span is left in the raised position for the rest of the year.

The bridge consists of four ramps carrying pedestrians across FDR Drive on the Manhattan side, three spans across the Harlem River, and a gradual descent onto Ward's Island.

It has a modern, streamlined appearance, but because it is 937 ft long with tall towers and only 12 ft wide, it lacks a dramatic presence and appears flimsy.

New York City's Bridges: Ward's Island Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.