Father Pitt

Category: Bridges

  • Sixteenth Street Bridge

    Sixteenth Street Bridge

    It is greatly to the honor of Pittsburgh as a cultural center that two of our most prominent bridges are named for famous writers. The Sixteenth Street Bridge, built in 1923, was named in 2013 for David McCullough, a writer who made history interesting to thousands who thought they weren’t interested in history. (The other one is the Ninth Street Bridge, named for Rachel Carson.) The architectural parts were designed by Warren & Wetmore, the same firm that designed Grand Central Station in New York.

    South portal to the Sixteenth Street Bridge
    Armillary sphere by Leo Lentilli

    The armillary spheres with horses were the work of sculptor Leo Lentilli, who was inspired by the Fontaine des Quatre-Parties-du-Monde in Paris.

    David McCullough Bridge
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    Comments

  • Birmingham Bridge

    Birmingham Bridge from the south shore

    Opened in 1977, this bridge was meant to be part of a titanic expressway system that would have demolished city neighborhoods for the convenience of suburban commuters, which explains why it seems to be so much more bridge than the location requires. It replaced the two-lane Brady Street Bridge.

    Birmingham Bridge from the pedestrian walkway

    Right now the bridge is getting one of its periodic refurbishings.

    Birmingham Bridge
    Birmingham Bridge
    Birmingham Bridge

    So far all our pictures of the Birmingham Bridge have been from the southern end. Our last picture is from the north, taken from Fifth Avenue in Soho.

    Birmingham Bridge
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    Comments

  • Fort Duquesne Bridge

    Fort Duquesne Bridge
    Fort Duquesne Bridge

  • Bellefield Bridge

    Bellefield Bridge and Carnegie Library
    From Greater Pittsburg, 1905.

    A view across the Bellefield Bridge toward the Carnegie Library in Oakland. The bridge is still there, but you can’t see it. The hollow was filled in with the bridge still in place, and the Mary Schenley Memorial Fountain sits on top of the buried bridge now.

    This view shows the library building before the enormous expansion in 1907. The two towers were victims of the expansion—but also perhaps victims of some negative criticism. The building in general—designed by Longfellow, Alden & Harlow—was highly praised, but some critics thought the towers a bit embarrassing. When Alden & Harlow (Longfellow had decided to stay in Boston) designed the new addition, the towers came down.

  • Smithfield Street Bridge

    Smithfield Street Bridge
    Portal to the Smithfield Street Bridge
    Smithfield Street Bridge
    Smithfield Street Bridge
    Smithfield Street Bridge
    Smithfield Street Bridge
    Kodak EasyShare Z1285; Canon PowerShot SX150 IS; Fujifilm FinePix HS10.
    Comments

  • Panhandle Bridge

    Panhandle Bridge with railroad ties in the foreground

    The picture above required a lot of manipulation: it was built from three separate photographs at different exposures in order to capture the detail in both the light and misty distance and the dark railroad ties in the foreground. The result may look a little artificial, but it makes a good illustration of the bridge. The pictures below, with no relevant details in the foreground, are less manipulated.

    Panhandle Bridge
    Panhandle Bridge
    Fujifilm Finepix HS10.

  • Pylon of the Tenth Street Bridge

    Pylon of the Tenth Street Bridge

    Below, with bonus pigeons on a wire.

    Pylon of the South Tenth Street Bridge
    Kodak EasyShare Z981.

  • Rachel Carson Bridge

    Rachel Carson Bridge, Pittsburgh
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    The Rachel Carson or Ninth Street Bridge, Pittsburgh, seen from six floors up on Liberty Avenue.

  • Fort Pitt Bridge

    Fort Pitt Bridge, with Point State Park and Acrisure Stadium in the background
    Sony Alpha 3000.

  • Rachel Carson Bridge

    Rachel Carson Bridge

    The Ninth Street Bridge, now named for our world-changing naturalist Rachel Carson, is the third of the Three Sisters going by street numbers, but it was the first to be built. Here we see it during the recent Three Rivers Arts Festival, when the artists’ market spilled outward across its entire length.

    Entrance
    Lantern
    Plaque
    Fujifilm FinePix HS10.

    It is old Pa Pitt’s belief that every work of architecture or engineering ought to bear a permanent record of all the information a future historian will want.