Toronto's Bridges: Humber Bay Arch Bridge

The Humber Bay Bridge is a basket-handle suspended-deck arch crossing the mouth of the Humber River in Toronto. The main span is 330 ft (100 m) long and the arch rises 70 ft (21.3 m) above the deck. It was designed by Montgomery and Sisam Architects and Delcan Corporation Structural Engineers. Construction was completed in 1994.
The deck has a prestressed central spine like a bowstring to hold onto the ends of the arch. The bridge was built on land and then moved by barge and cranes into position across the Humber River.

The bridge allows pedestrians and bicyclists to travel along what was an aboriginal trail beside Lake Ontario. The bridge includes Native American symbols such as the thunderbird motif in the arch cross-bracing. More information about this bridge can be obtained at the Waterloo Website.

Toronto's Bridges: Humber Bay Arch Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Toronto's Bridges: Prince Edward Viaduct

Often, when a viaduct goes through a city, it creates an ugly wall that acts as a boundary between communities. However, the Prince Edward Viaduct is so tall and open that it improves the environment.

The Don River Valley makes a pleasant change from the noise and traffic of downtown Toronto and the Prince Edward Viaduct is tall enough (40 m) so you are barely aware that five lanes of traffic and a train are rumbling by overhead.

This double-deck viaduct was built after a couple of false starts in 1918.  The bridge has a nice open design that looks more like wrought iron than a steel truss arch.  Spandrel columns carry the load from floor beams to the arches which are supported at the bottom of the concrete piers.

This photo was taken before a special barrier was built in 2003 that reduced suicides on the bridge to zero.

Toronto's Bridges: Prince Edward Viaduct by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Arch Bridges: Yaquina Bay (Newport) Bridge

The 1936 Yaquina Bay Bridge is another of Conde McCullough's structural fantasies: an elegant engineering solution with architectural flourishes at the piers and abutments.
It is a 3,223 ft (981 m) long viaduct with simple girder approach spans, five reinforced concrete deck arch spans crossing the south side of the Bay, and a 600 ft (183 m) long steel through arch with a 350 ft (107 m) steel deck arch on each side on the north side of the Bay.
It is informative to compare the bridges of Conde McCullough with those of Othmar Ammann. At about the time McCullough was designing arch bridges in Oregon with Neo-Gothic elements, Ammann was in New York City, designing suspension bridges in the new Modernist style.

Arch Bridges: Yaquina Bay (Newport) Bridge by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.