Three rivers - the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio - join in Pittsburgh, making the city a natural site for the building of bridges. But the Smithfield Street Bridge stands apart from other Pittsburgh bridges for several reasons: it replaced structures by two well-known bridge engineers, Lewis Wernwag and John A. Roebling; it was the first use in America of the lenticular - or lens-shaped - truss design; and it was one of the first major bridges in the U.S. built primarily with steel.
Monongahela River
YearAdded:
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/RJ Schmidt (CC BY-ND 2.0)Image Caption: Smithfield Street BridgeEra_date_from: 1883
1975
Innovations
Three rivers - the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio - join in Pittsburgh, making the city a natural site for the building of bridges. But the Smithfield Street Bridge stands apart from other Pittsburgh bridges for several reasons: it replaced structures by two well-known bridge engineers, Lewis…
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