Liberty Bridge
About this property
The Liberty Bridge, which was completed in 1928, connects downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the Liberty Tunnels and the South Hills neighborhoods beyond. It crosses the Monongahela River and intersects Interstate 579 (the Crosstown Boulevard) at its northern terminus. It was designed by George S. Richardson and cost $3,456,000 to build. The Liberty Bridge is a steel cantilever bridge and was created as the missing link between downtown Pittsburgh and the Liberty Tunnel, which had been built four years earlier in 1924 as a link to the South Hills. The bridge opened on March 27, 1928, following a 5-mile (8.0 km) vehicle parade from the southern suburbs of the city, which crossed the Smithfield Street Bridge and proceeded through downtown before ending at the southern end of the new bridge. It was designed by George S. Richardson and cost $3,456,000 to build. It is 2,663 feet 3⁄16 inch (811.687 m) long, the main span is 448 feet (137 m), and the water clearance is 44.4 feet (13.5 m). It was renovated in 1982 by the Dick Corporation, at a cost of $32 million. On September 2, 2016, the Liberty Bridge was closed for 24 days, following a fire during construction work on the bridge. Intense heat from burning plastic piping had caused a 30-foot (9 m) steel beam (compression chord) to buckle. The bridge reopened to weight-limited traffic on September 26, and full traffic on September 30. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation assessed the value of the damages at over $3 million. List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-448, "Liberty Bridge, Spanning Monongahela River, East Carson Street & Second Avenue at State Route 3069, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA", 11 photos, 1 color transparency, 15 data pages, 1 photo caption page
Location
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Liberty Bridge listed on the National Register?
Liberty Bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 21, 1988.
What type of historic resource is Liberty Bridge?
Liberty Bridge is classified as a structure in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Liberty Bridge?
The period of significance for Liberty Bridge is recorded as the industrial era.
Can I research the history near Liberty Bridge?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Liberty Bridge will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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