Here are a few pictures of the first bridge I took from begining to end. It's a 106' simple span, plate girder structure. The interesting thing about it, is the integral abutments. Integral abutments allow the expansion joints that are usually at the begining of the bridge to be moved to the begining of the approach slabs. This helps keep the bridge in service longer since there won't be any water or salt leaking through the joints casusing damage to the beams and bearings.
The underside of the superstructure
Ol Blue standing proud
Here is a picture of a bridge over the Allegheney River in Foxburg PA. My company designed it, and construction was finished just as I started with the company. This bridge replaced a double decker truss bridge. The upper deck was for trains, the lower deck was for vehicular traffic.
This summer my company was tasked with surveying and writing reports on western PA's historic metal truss bridges. This was a lot of fun since it got me out of the office, and I got to see some great old metal truss bridges. Most of the historic trusses I saw were all built before 1920. The truss that follows, is refered to as a "pony truss". This particular bridge was built in 1920 by the Farris Bridge Company of Pittsburgh PA. This bridge replaced a metal structure that was built in the 1880's. The area was home to blast furnaces as early as the 1830's, where early steel shapes were produced. This bridge is near the town of Parker, in Armstrong County PA. The setting of the bridge was one of my favorites. The creek is as clear as a bell, and is apparently a great trout fishing creek.
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