A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical suspenders, have a long history in many mountainous parts of the world.
The Chesapeake & Delaware Canal is a 14-mile (22.5 km)-long, 450-foot (137.2 m)-wide and 35-foot (10.7 m)-deep ship canal that connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay in the states of Delaware and Maryland in the United States.
William Rush was a U.S. neoclassical sculptor from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is considered the first major American sculptor. Rush was born in Philadelphia, the fourth child of Joseph Rush, a ship's carpenter, and first wife, Rebecca Lincoln. As a teenager, he apprenticed three years with woodcarver Edward Cutbush, and soon surpassed his master in the art of carving of ships' figureheads in wood. He saw military service during the American Revolution, as an officer in the militia. He opened his own wood carving business, and was in great demand when the U.S. Navy began building ships on Philadelphia. Later in life, he took up sculpture. Rush was one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and taught sculpture there. He was also active in local politics, serving on the Philadelphia City Council for two decades. Rush died in Philadelphia in 1833, and is buried at The Woodlands (Philadelphia).
The Coraopolis Bridge is a girder bridge over the back channel of the Ohio River connecting Grand Avenue on Neville Island to Ferree Street in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. It opened in 1995 to replace a structure of historic significance. The original Pratt/Bowstring/Pennsylvania through truss spans, designed by Theodore Cooper, were formerly the (third) Sixth Street Bridge, spanning the Allegheny River, in downtown Pittsburgh, and were built in 1892 by the Union Bridge Company. They were floated downstream by the Foundation Company in 1927 rather than being demolished when the bridge was removed to enable construction of the present (fourth) Three Sisters (Pittsburgh) Sixth Street Self-anchored suspension bridge. However, by the late 1980s, the old bridge could no longer support traffic volumes and was replaced by a newer structure.
The Lehigh Canal, or the Lehigh Navigation Canal, is a navigable canal that begins at the mouth of Nesquehoning Creek on the Lehigh River in eastern Pennsylvania. It was built in two sections over a span of twenty years, beginning in 1818. The lower section spanned the distance between Easton and present-day Jim Thorpe. In Easton, the canal met the Delaware and Morris Canals, which allowed goods to be transported further up the U.S. East Coast. At its height, the Lehigh Canal was 72 miles (116 km) long.
James Finley, aka Judge James Finley, is widely recognized as the first designer and builder of the modern suspension bridge. Born in Ireland, Finley moved to a 287-acre (1.16 km2) farm in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, near Uniontown. Elected a justice of the peace in 1784, he went on to become county commissioner in 1789, and a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate. From 1791 until his death, he was an Associate Judge for Fayette County.
His Jacob's Creek Bridge, built in 1801 for US$600, and demolished in 1833, was the first example of a suspension bridge using wrought iron chains and with a level deck. It connected Uniontown to Greensburg, spanning 70 feet, and was 12 feet 6 inches (3.81 m) wide.
Finley is also credited with designing and constructing a chain suspension bridge across Dunlap's Creek in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in 1809. In 1820, however, the bridge collapsed under a heavy snow combined with the loads from a six-horse wagon team. The bridge was replaced by the Dunlap's Creek Bridge, the country's first cast-iron bridge, in 1835.
The Market Street Bridge carries Market Street, the primary east-west street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, across the Schuylkill River. The current bridge is the fifth permanent structure built at the site.
The Walnut Street Bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania crosses the Schuylkill River between Center City and West Philadelphia, and carries Walnut Street, a westbound street. Completed in 1990 after several years of construction, this modern highway-type bridge replaced a span completed in 1893. The bridge was adjusted in 2012 to become a 3 lane bridge with 12-feet-wide (3.7m) foot paths, as well as a bike lane The Bridge in its current state The 1893 bridge was a 60-foot-wide (18 m) concrete structure with three steel Pratt trusses mounted on four heavy oblong concrete abutments and piers. It was demolished in 1988, but its piers were used for the 62-foot (19 m)-wide 1991 span.
The Falls Bridge is a steel Pratt truss bridge that spans the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It connects Kelly Drive at Calumet Street with Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive at Neill Drive. It replaced a wooden covered bridge at the same site.
The Chain Bridge in Newburyport, Massachusetts, is a "look-alike" replica built in 1910 to replace the "first suspension bridge" constructed in the United States in 1810. Since the current structure is one of a series of bridges at this location since 1793, it is "the oldest continually occupied, long span, bridge crossing" in the US. It has also been called the Essex-Merrimac Bridge or Newburyport Chain Bridge.
Gray's Ferry Bridge has been the formal or informal name of several floating bridges and four permanent ones that have carried highway and rail traffic over the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The bridge today is a four-lane divided highway bridge, built in 1976, that carries Grays Ferry Avenue from the Grays Ferry neighborhood on the east bank, over the river and the Northeast Corridor railroad tracks, to the Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood of Kingsessing.
Spring Garden Street Bridge is a highway bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It crosses the Schuylkill River below Fairmount Dam and connects West Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It is the fourth bridge at this location.
Spider Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill was an iron-wire footbridge erected in 1816 over the Schuylkill River, north of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though a modest and temporary structure, it is thought to have been the first wire-cable suspension bridge in the world.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, Schuylkill River Viaduct, also called the Reading Railroad Bridge and the Falls Rail Bridge, is a stone arch bridge that carries rail traffic over the Schuylkill River at Falls of Schuylkill in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Located in Fairmount Park, the bridge also spans Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, and Kelly Drive. The name Philadelphia & Reading Railroad (P&R) was later shortened to Reading Company.
The Twin Bridges are a pair of steel-plate girder bridges that span the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They carry northbound and southbound traffic on US 1 just north of its intersection with Interstate 76.
The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, Bridge at West Falls is a stone and iron plate girder bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that carries two CSX Trenton Subdivision tracks over Kelly Drive, Schuylkill River, and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
Jacob's Creek Bridge was the first iron-chain suspension bridge built in the United States. Designed by James Finley, a local judge and inventor, it spanned Jacob's Creek, just south of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Nothing of the bridge is thought to remain, but an area on the north side of Jacob's Creek – where Route 819 crosses – is still called "Iron Bridge."
Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Bridge No. 1 was a swing steel through truss that spanned the Schuylkill River between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's Kingsessing and Grays Ferry neighborhoods.
Meems Bottom Covered Bridge is a covered bridge in Shenandoah County, Virginia, United States. The bridge, at 204 feet (62 m), is the longest covered bridge in Virginia and one of the last that supports regular traffic. Near the town of Mount Jackson, the Meems Bottom Covered Bridge features a 200-foot single-span wooden Burr arch structure. Built in 1892 by Franklin Hiser Wissler, the wooden bridge over the North Fork of the Shenandoah River provided access to his apple orchards at Strathmore Farms. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 10, 1975.
The Verde River Sheep Bridge, also known as the Red Point Sheep Bridge, is a suspension bridge which crosses the Verde River in Arizona. Constructed primarily to allow sheep to be driven between grazing ranges on either side of the river. Building started in 1943 and was completed in 1944. Sheep drives stopped in 1978. The bridge was closed in 1987 and largely demolished in 1988. A replica bridge was constructed in by the U.S. Forest Service in 1989 to allow hikers access to the Mazatzal Wilderness in Tonto National Forest. The original west suspension tower still remains alongside the replica bridge.
"View of Chain Bridge and Falls of Schuylkill, Five Miles from Philadelphia" (1811), by Thomas Birch (private collection).
"View from Laurel Hill Cemetery, Phila." The Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, Schuylkill River Viaduct (1853–56, still in use) was built at the approximate location of the Chain Bridge. This photograph was taken from almost the same spot as the Birch painting.
Falls of Schuylkill, from the western side of the river. Philadelphia and Reading Railway Bridge is at center. Laurel Hill Cemetery is visible at upper right.
