Longfellow Bridge
42.361636111111 - 71.075411111111Koordinaten: 42 ° 21 ' 41.9 "N, 71 ° 4' 31.5 " W
F1
Massachusetts Route 3, MBTA Red Line
The Longfellow Bridge is an arch bridge, opened in 1906 in the state of Massachusetts, which connects the Boston's Beacon Hill with the city of Cambridge. She leads the four-lane Massachusetts Route 3 and the U -Bahn line Red Line of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ( MBTA ) over the Charles River.
History
At the site of the bridge since the founding of Boston in 1630 was a ferry crossing to the opposite side of the river. From 1793 onwards joined at the behest of Governor John Hancock at the same place and the wooden to February 1858 West Boston Bridge toll the two places. Their opening accelerated the growth of Cambridge, which was to designate up to now only surrounded by swamps village, the city significantly.
1898, the Cambridge Bridge Commission was established, which should guide the construction of a powerful river crossing in the way. The specifications for the new bridge saw before, especially a track connection for the trains of " Boston Elevated Railway" ( Bery ), today's MBTA. For senior engineer William Jackson was appointed, who penned already the Harvard Bridge and the Charlestown Bridge came on the same river. As chief architect Edmund M. Wheelwright was recovered, which was also previously worked in the City of Boston. After the two France, Austria, Germany and Russia had traveled in search of role models for the new bridge and after the political and structural issues - such as whether a train, lifting or fixed bridge should be built - could be clarified, began the construction work in 1900. at the time the project was still called Cambridge Bridge.
The West Boston Bridge was demolished in 1898. Until the opening of the Cambridge Bridge traffic was handled by a temporary bridge.
The new bridge was opened to its use on August 3, 1906 the official opening but still had to wait for almost a year and was held on July 31, 1907. The bridge carried four traffic lanes - of which the two inside each had grooved rails and overhead lines for the trams - and in the middle of metro rail on its own rail body and outside each a footpath.
1927, the bridge was renamed after living in Cambridge in the 19th century writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote a poem about the West Boston Bridge his time in Longfellow Bridge. In 1956, Cambridge an extension of the bridge by two fields.
The Longfellow Bridge today
The bridge is since 2009 under the supervision and administration of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, in short: MassDOT, the traffic authority of the State of Massachusetts, which indicates the use of 28,600 vehicles and 90,000 passengers on the subway each workday. The tram systems were removed in 1952. The condition of the bridge you have to be extremely dilapidated apart beschreiben.Von minor building in 1958 and 2002, the been it is practically nothing to maintaining the building done in over 100 years. In 2007, she was also damaged by a fire in a maintenance corridor. In the summer of 2008 the bridge was finally classified as acute danger of collapse. The footpath and the inner lane were a result, on the north side is blocked, the Red Line a speed limit of 16 km / hr ( 10 mph ) was imposed. For trucks the bridge was temporarily completely blocked.
For the period from spring 2011 to 2015, extensive refurbishment is now planned under expenditure of 267.5 million U.S. dollars. Preliminary work began in the summer of 2010. According to a MassDOT calculation regular maintenance and repairs over the years have swallowed up $ 81 million. The measure is part of a program for the rehabilitation of several bridges in Massachusetts - the state of construction of the Longfellow Bridge is by far not the only one in the state. The program has a total of three billion U.S. dollars.
Location and construction
Boston and Cambridge are located on the east and west banks of the Charles River, which is dredged at the site of the bridge for about 500 meters wide Charles River Basin. Shortly there after follows the river mouth in the Atlantic Ocean. As a design example, a steel arch bridge with 11 fields was selected. The 1956 in Cambridge over land cultivated two fields are designed as steel truss. Thus, the bridge is 13 -field today.
Markantetstes feature of the bridge and a Boston landmark are the four decorative towers at the corners of the central bridge span, which can also be used to change the side of the road about a location under the roadway connection. The shape of the towers earned them the nickname " Salt and pepper shakers " (salt and pepper shakers ) a under the Bostonern. Influences of the Russian " wedding-cake style" - their spiritual fathers have indeed used, among other Russia as a source of inspiration - are obvious.
At the Boston end of the bridge closes after a roundabout, over which the Embankment Road and State Route 28 is accessible along the riverbank, Cambridge Street to. This forms the border between the city and the posh district Beacon Hill. Above the gyro is the stop Charles / MGH Red Line, rich with platforms for an extension until today on the Longfellow Bridge itself. Immediately behind the trains in the underground Beacon Hill.
On the Cambridge side of the bridge in the East Cambridge neighborhood is directly connected to the Hauptraßen Main Street and Broadway, which also represent the boundary of the ( urban ) downtown. Also, an up-and downhill on Memorial Drive as a counterpart to Embankment Road at Boston bank is given. At the Main Street is partly the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT ), while the Broadway leads to direketem ways to Harvard University. It follows incidentally that both Institute in Cambridge, and is not, as often claimed are in Boston. In Cambridge, the Red Line runs shortly after leaving the bridge back in the ground, the next stop, Kendall Square, is, however, only about 600 meters inland at MIT.