Inclined Plane Bridge

40.325972222222 - 78.925555555556Koordinaten: 40 ° 19 ' 33.5 "N, 78 ° 55 ' 32 " W

F1

SR 3022

Stonycreek River

The Inclined Plane Bridge is a 232 foot ( 70.8 m) long run truss bridge that crosses the Stonycreek River in Johnstown in Cambria County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It connects the city with the station of the Johnstown Inclined Plane, a funicular railway. The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 22, 1988 under the Highway Bridges Owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Transportation TR. In 1997, she was documented for the Historic American Engineering Record ( HAER ).

History

On 31 May 1889, the South Fork Dam collapsed on the Little Conemaugh River above Johnstown, after heavy rains had led to the rise of the water level. The resulting tsunami devastated the city and more than 2000 inhabitants of the valley died. When the city was rebuilt, the Cambria Iron Company began to build houses on the Yoder Hill, who towered over the city. To spite of the steep slope to provide a simple means of access for the new settlement Westmont and at the same time to provide a means of escape in case of future flooding disasters, the company decided to build a funicular. To bind the valley station of the cable car to the city, the construction of a bridge was necessary because the city and the valley station lay on the banks of the Stonycreek River opposed.

Construction began on June 11, 1890, and the excavation for the abutment of the bridge was completed a week later.

On March 17, 1936, nearly 4,000 people drängden on the bridge ramp, the bridge itself as well as on numerous boats together to bring up the cable car to higher ground in safety because Stoneycreek River and Conemaugh River had burst its banks. Further downstream had this flood in Pittsburgh devastating.

The Works Progress Administration announced in October 1936 17.812 U.S. dollars to repair the bridge ramp and replace railing posts, handrails and the road surface. The Pennsylvania Department of Highways, the forerunner of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation ( PennDOT ), bought the bridge in 1964. From 1 September 2000 to PennDOT invested 2.3 million dollars in renovation of the bridge and the road leading to it. The work was interrupted from April to September 2001 in order to enable operation of the cable car in the summer months. Were completed the renovation measures on 14 December 2001.

Design

During construction of the Inclined Plane Bridge parts in wrought iron and steel was riveted together so as to form a truss bridge with continuous Pennsylvania straps. A Pennsylvania - carrier ( or Petit- carrier ) is basically a Pratt - carrier, in which the outer longitudinal beams are set poligonal and have dividing fields in order to strengthen the beam under heavy load. With a length of 232 feet ( 70.8 m) is the Inclined Plane Bridge relatively short for a Pennsylvania - girder bridge, which were usually built only a length between 250 and 600 feet.