The Chain Bridge is a

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

which crosses the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...

at Little Falls in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

The steel girder bridge carries close to 22,000 cars a day. It connects Washington with affluent sections of Arlington and Fairfax counties in Virginia. On the Washington side, the bridge connects with Canal Road. Left turns onto the Clara Barton Parkway from the Chain Bridge are prohibited, but the reverse is permitted. On the Virginia side, the bridge connects with State Route 123 (Chain Bridge Road), which provides access to the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The Chain Bridge has three lanes (of which the center is reversible) and can be safely accessed by pedestrians and cyclists. The pedestrian sidewalk provides access to the

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, wh ...

towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport ...

via a ramp. The bridge also carries water mains which provides Arlington County with water from the

Washington Aqueduct The Washington Aqueduct is an aqueduct that provides the public water supply system serving Washington, D.C., and parts of its suburbs, using water from the Potomac River. One of the first major aqueduct projects in the United States, the Aquedu ...

History

Potomac Chain Bridge drawing Kollner 1839

The first bridge at the location was opened on July 3, 1797. It was a wooden covered bridge, and rotted and collapsed in 1804. The second bridge, of similar type, burned six months after it was built. The third bridge was built four years later in 1808, and its method of construction gave subsequent iterations their names. It was a chain suspension bridge, using 1¼ inch bars. It was designed by Judge James E. Finley, and was 136 feet long by 15 feet wide. It was destroyed by flood in 1810 or 1812. The fourth bridge was also a chain suspension bridge, and though damaged by floods in 1815, it lasted until 1840. The fifth bridge was built in 1840, and made of chain and wood. This span collapsed in 1852. It was replaced by a crossbeam

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

structure that resembled a long garden arbor or

pergola A pergola is most commonly an outdoor garden feature forming a shaded walkway, passageway, or sitting area of vertical posts or pillars that usually support cross-beams and a sturdy open lattice, often upon which woody vines are trained. The ...

, but retained its historical name. During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the Chain Bridge was a popular place for the Union Army to access the countryside encampments from

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

. The bridge is the site of the first

Union Army Balloon Corps The Union Army Balloon Corps was a branch of the Union Army during the American Civil War, established by presidential appointee Thaddeus S. C. Lowe. It was organized as a civilian operation, which employed a group of prominent American aeronauts ...

balloon crossing, which took place overnight on October 12, 1861, conducted by Professor

Thaddeus S. C. Lowe Thaddeus Sobieski Constantine Lowe (August 20, 1832 – January 16, 1913), also known as Professor T. S. C. Lowe, was an American Civil War aeronaut, scientist and inventor, mostly self-educated in the fields of chemistry, meteorology, and ...

and a band of handlers who had to precariously traverse the outsides of the fully trellised bridge. In a nine-hour ordeal, the balloon ''Union'' was fully inflated in Washington and walked out to the battlefield at Lewinsville, Virginia. The truss bridge was swept away in an 1870 flood, and a lightweight iron truss replacement was erected in 1872–1874. Traffic restrictions were placed on the bridge in the 1920s, and it was fully closed following the record flood of 1936. The eighth and present version of the bridge is a continuous steel

girder A girder () is a support beam used in construction. It is the main horizontal support of a structure which supports smaller beams. Girders often have an I-beam cross section composed of two load-bearing ''flanges'' separated by a stabilizing ' ...

structure, completed in 1938 on piers dating from the 1870s. ChainBridge2x

In 1982, the bridge was significantly overhauled. The overhaul widened the three 10-foot wide lanes with a 12 foot wide one and two 11 foot ones. It also replaced a set of stairs from the bridge to the C&O Trail with a ramp, removed the sidewalk on the downstream side, added a crash barrier between the sidewalk and roadway, replaced the old railing with a fence and replaced heavy concrete with a lighter type that allowed the bridge to hold more weight.

Photo gallery

File:Potomac Chain Bridge drawing Kollner 1839.jpg, Chain Bridge, 1839 File:Chain Bridge over the Potomac04112v.jpg, Chain Bridge during Civil War File:View across Chain Bridge over the Potomac04113v.jpg, Chain Bridge during Civil War File:Chain bridge, Washington, D.C. 34797v.jpg, Chain Bridge during Civil War File:Battery at Chain Bridge, Washington, D.C. 1862 LCCN2012646728.jpg, Battery at Chain Bridge in 1862 File:Chain Bridge (4919754199).jpg, Chain Bridge, circa 1920-1924 File:Chain bridge 20051111 143554 2.jpg, Underside of Chain Bridge, 2005 File:Chain bridge 20051111 132258 2.jpg, Chain Bridge from upstream, 2005 File:Chain Bridge over Chesapeake and Ohio Canal.jpg, Chain Bridge over

, circa 2013 File:ChainBridge1.jpg, Chain Bridge over Potomac River

References

External links

Where Are The Chains On Chain Bridge?
* {{Crossings navbox , structure = Bridges , place =

, bridge = Chain Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = American Legion Memorial Bridge , upstream signs = I-495

, downstream = Francis Scott Key Bridge , downstream signs = US 29

Road bridges in Virginia Bridges completed in 1797 Bridges completed in 1938 Bridges over the Potomac River Road bridges in Washington, D.C. Chain bridges Roads with a reversible lane Former toll bridges in Virginia Former toll bridges in Washington, D.C. Girder bridges in the United States Steel bridges in the United States The Palisades (Washington, D.C.)