The end of the Fort Steuben Bridge (Pittsburgh, Greensburg: upkeep, live)

[BrianTH]

This was a nice old suspension bridge that was in a poor state of repair and deemed redundant, and thus was considered too expensive to fix. That is unfortunate, but it got a very pretty sendoff:


Fort Steuben Bridge Demolition - YouTube!

[airwave09]

That was awesome!

[SammyKhalifa]

It's unfortunate, but since the completion of the Rte. 22 upgrades that area had had three bridges within about a mile of each other. The Ft Steuben has actually been closed to traffic for years.

Actually, the more interesting and historical Bridge there is the old Market Street Bridge. It was built in 1905 but has had several alterations since then. In fact, (probably because they don't have to upkeep the Ft Steuben any more) they've just been able to do some nice renovations to her, which aren't exactly historically accurate but still look nice:

(before)






(after)






(photos: wheeling intelligencer, "jeffrybt" on flicker, historicbridges.org)

Market Street Bridge Historic Ohio River Suspension Bridge in West Virginia and Ohio

In short, if they had to get rid of one of them (and they did), I'm glad they blew up the Fort Steuben (which I thought was pretty ugly). I assumed it would be the Market Street bridge, which was in pretty bad shape to the point I was almost afraid to drive across it.

[BrianTH]

I'm not really questioning their choice of bridges to demo, although from what I have (casually) read about the issue, it isn't clear the remaining bridges actually have enough capacity.

But I do think just judging it as a structure, the Fort Steuben Bridge was a nice bridge--classic 1920s-era suspension bridge with a graceful arc and proportions:

[JoeP]

Well between local and commercial traffic, there needs to be more than the Route 22 bridge.

And more significantly an alternative in case there's an accident or some other reason that the Veterans bridge is not available.

[gg]

Was a nice looking bridge, but pretty far from Pittsburgh.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I'm not really questioning their choice of bridges to demo, although from what I have (casually) read about the issue, it isn't clear the remaining bridges actually have enough capacity.

But I do think just judging it as a structure, the Fort Steuben Bridge was a nice bridge--classic 1920s-era suspension bridge with a graceful arc and proportions:

Yeah, people liked it. I think it might be just me.

One thing to note is that the new(er) Veterans Memorial Bridge is the one that brings the highway (US22) over the river. After that went in, the main use for the Ft. Steuben Bridge was to get people from Steubenville over to the mill in Weirton. There isn't any mill any more, so . . .

From West Virginia, the Market Street gives a little better access to downtown Steubenville. The Fort Steuben crossed into the same highway as Veterans (we always just called it "The New Bridge") only a few hundred yards down.

As an aside, apparently people that know bridges better than I do really like the New Bridge as well. I guess it was rather groundbreaking (from an engineering perspective) at the time it was proposed:




Also, explosions=cool. We made the national news.

[BrianTH]

The Veterans Memorial Bridge isn't necessarily my aesthetic, but I nonetheless appreciate it too.

Just echoing what I have read, I gather the issue is that even though the other bridges are better-positioned, and obviously the new one was necessary for the highway, there still may not be enough total capacity crossing the river (a not uncommon problem, I might note). Supposedly people had already noticed traffic congestion issues and such after the Fort Steuben was closed--again, though, that's just what I recall reading.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Was a nice looking bridge, but pretty far from Pittsburgh.

Not really. 37 miles from Point State Park and 28 from the airport. Many people live there and work in the Pittsburgh area (esp. the "West Hills" or whatever you want to call it). It's about 4 Mi further from downtown than Butler. The same distance as Greensburg, PA, which is mentioned here often. A tad closer than Beaver Falls.

People "over here" think Ohio is like a billion miles away but really it's not.

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

The Veterans Memorial Bridge isn't necessarily my aesthetic, but I nonetheless appreciate it too.

Just echoing what I have read, I gather the issue is that even though the other bridges are better-positioned, and obviously the new one was necessary for the highway, there still may not be enough total capacity crossing the river (a not uncommon problem, I might note). Supposedly people had already noticed traffic congestion issues and such after the Fort Steuben was closed--again, though, that's just what I recall reading.

Yeah, we'll see. I haven't noticed a traffic issue, but I am not there all that often any more. I'm sure it also matters where you are trying to go, from where, and when.