Summer Street Bridge

Summer Street Bridge
Aerial view of Summer Street Bridge
Coordinates	42°21′04″N71°03′07″W / 42.35109°N 71.05194°W / 42.35109; -71.05194
Carries	Summer Street
Crosses	Fort Point Channel
Locale	Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Official name	Summer Street Retractile Bridge
Owner	City of Boston
Maintained by	Boston Public Works
Characteristics
Design	Retractable bridge
Material	Steel, masonry
Total length	507 feet (155 m)
Width	44 feet (13 m) (each deck)
Height	25 feet (7.6 m) (above deck)
Longest span	132 feet (40 m) (draws)
No. of spans	5
No. of lanes	4
Rail characteristics
No. of tracks	2 (discontinued in 1950s, no longer extant)
History
Constructed by	Berlin Iron Bridge Co. (draws), A. & P. Roberts Company (fixed spans)
Built	1898–1899
Location
References
[1]

The Summer Street Bridge is a retractile bridge built in 1899 in Boston, Massachusetts, over the Fort Point Channel. It still stands, but has served as a fixed bridge since 1959. ^[1] This was the site of the Summer Street Bridge disaster in 1916.

History

The structure was built to replace a swing bridge dating to 1855. ^[1] Construction contracts were awarded in October 1897, and the first draw was operational in August 1899. ^[1] The bridge consists of two parallel decks, each 44 feet (13 m) wide, which when operational, had 132-foot-long (40 m) center sections that were retracted independently and diagonally to allow water traffic to pass. ^{[1] [a]}

The bridge was the site of the Summer Street Bridge disaster on the night of November 7, 1916, in which 46 passengers were killed when a streetcar fell into Fort Point Channel. ^[2] The bridge remained in use, although its streetcar traffic was discontinued in the 1950s and the spans were fixed in place in 1959. ^[1] Originally, the structure had a bridge tender's house, which was removed in 1965. ^[1]

When documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in 1984, the Summer Street Bridge was one of only four retractile drawbridges left in the United States, two of which were on Summer Street in Boston. ^{[1] [3]} The other bridge on Summer Street, crossing Reserved Channel, was replaced in 2003. ^[4]

Gallery

• 
  Aerial view of the bridge in July 1925
• 
  Side view in June 2017
• 
  Center draw in June 2017
• 
  Rail detail below draw section in June 2017
• 
  Wheel detail below draw section in June 2017
• 
  Date detail above draw section in June 2017

See also

• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Massachusetts

Notes

1. This bridge is oriented northwest–southeast, with the northwest-bound lanes of traffic retracting diagonally to the north, and the southeast-bound lanes retracting diagonally to the west.

References

1. Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MA-41, "Congress Street Bascule Bridge"
2. Moskowitz, Eric. "The tragedy that Boston forgot". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
3. "Summer Street Bridge". historicbridges.org. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
4. "Summer Street over Reserved Channel Bridge". bridgehunter.com. Retrieved March 26, 2025.