Spring Garden Street Bridge

Spring Garden Street Bridge is a highway bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It crosses the Schuylkill River below Fairmount Dam and connects West Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It is the fourth bridge at this location.

The bridge is located at .

1st bridge: The Colossus

As early as 1693, a ferry operated, crossing the Schuylkill River at Fairmount, the hill on which the Philadelphia Museum of Art now stands. Being upstream of the others, this was called the Upper Ferry.

For the Upper Ferry site, bridgebuilder Louis Wernwag designed "The Colossus", the longest single-span wooden bridge in the United States. Construction began in April 1812, and it opened on January 7, 1813. A double-arched-truss with a clear span of , it was a marvel of engineering for its time. Also called the "Colossus of Fairmount," the "Upper Ferry Bridge," and the "Lancaster Schuylkill Bridge," the toll bridge was part of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike. It was destroyed by fire on September 1, 1838.

Thomas Birch painted at least two views of the bridge, and one of them was made into an 1813 engraving by Jacob J. Plocher. This "Upper Ferry Bridge" engraving was copied frequently on Staffordshire china.

File:Fairmount Waterworks 1835 (cropped).jpg, "Schuylkill Waterworks" (1835), with "The Colossus" in the background.
File:A View of Fairmount and the Waterworks by John Rubens Smith 1835.jpg, "A View of Fairmount and the Waterworks" (1835) by John Rubens Smith.

2nd bridge: Wire Bridge at Fairmount

Five miles upstream from Fairmount, iron manufacturers Josiah White and Erksine Hazard built a wire-cable footbridge in 1816. Though a modest structure – in length with a suspended walkway wide – and a temporary one – it stood for less than a year – the Spider Bridge at Falls of Schuylkill is thought to have been the first wire-cable suspension bridge in history.

Twenty-five years later, permanent wire-cable suspension bridges had been built in France and Switzerland. To replace "The Colossus," Charles Ellet, Jr. designed the first major wire-cable suspension bridge in the United States. The "Wire Bridge at Fairmount" was commissioned by the City of Philadelphia, and opened to traffic on January 2, 1842. It had no toll, and stood for over thirty years.

Ellet would go on to design the Wheeling Suspension Bridge (1847–49); and the first Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge (1847–48), which was abandoned before completion.

File:Suspension bridge, Philadelphia, by Kilburn Brothers 2.jpg, Wire Bridge at Fairmount.
File:On the Schuylkil (Schuylkill), Pennsylvania, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, Wire Bridge from mouth of Schuylkill Canal.
File:Wire bridge, Fairmount, by Newell, R., d. 1897.jpg, Wire Bridge from mouth of Schuylkill Canal.
File:Wire bridge at Fairmount (Instantenous), from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, Wire Bridge from Schuylkill River.
File:South from River Drive, by Cremer, James, 1821-1893.jpg, Wire Bridge from Boathouse Row.
File:Wire bridge on the Schuylkill River, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, Wire Bridge from Boathouse Row.

3rd bridge: Callowhill Street Bridge

The Callowhill Street Bridge was designed by Jacob H. Linville, engineer, and built by the Keystone Bridge Company, 1874–75. A double-decker bridge that carried passengers, vehicles and streetcars on its upper deck and trains (later removed) on its lower, it was a Whipple truss of cast and wrought iron, long and wide. The arches between the decks were decorative and removed circa 1900; the ornate railings were removed by 1910. It was demolished in 1964.

File:1875 Keystone Bridge Company Ad (cropped).jpg, Callowhill Street Bridge in an 1875 advertisement.
File:View in Fairmount Park. Lower deck, Callowhill St. bridge, by Hemple, A. H. (Alfred H.).jpg, Callowhill Street Bridge, lower deck.
File:Callowhill Street Bridge 1910 (cropped).jpg, Callowhill Street Bridge in 1910.

4th bridge: Spring Garden Street Bridge

The current bridge was designed by Richard Wisniewski of Philadelphia, and completed in 1965. It carries West Spring Garden Street over the Pennsylvania Railroad lines, the Schuylkill Expressway, the Schuylkill River, and the Schuylkill River Trail. The West River Drive Bridge crosses diagonally beneath it, carrying the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive over the Schuylkill River.

File:Philadelphia skyline August 2007.jpg, Looking southeast from the Spring Garden Street Bridge.
File:Spring Garden and West River Bridges.jpg, As seen from a kayak on the Schuylkill River. The Spring Garden Street Bridge is the upper of the two.

See also

* List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania
* List of crossings of the Schuylkill River
* Spring Garden Street Tunnel

Notes

References

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External links

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{{Crossings navbox
, structure = Crossings
, place = Schuylkill River
, bridge = Spring Garden Street Bridge
, bridge signs =
, upstream = West River Drive Bridge
, upstream signs =
, downstream = Vine Street Expressway Bridge
, downstream signs =

Bridges in Philadelphia
Bridges over the Schuylkill River
Bridges completed in 1813
Bridges completed in 1842
Bridges completed in 1875
Bridges completed in 1965
Historic American Engineering Record in Philadelphia
Road bridges in Pennsylvania
Former toll bridges in Pennsylvania
1842 establishments in Pennsylvania