This bridge was proceeded by the 1878 Superior Viaduct.
This 1917 bridge was the first bridge in Cleveland that did not have a movable span. [Bob Edwards Facebook comment]
The 6 streetcar tracks on the lower deck were abandoned in 1955.
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| By LeeG7144 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons |
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| OBLIQUE VIEW - Detroit Superior High Level Bridge, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, OH Library of Congress: HAER OHIO,18-CLEV,22--28 (CT) |
In 1917 a higher level bridge was built so that no river traffic would impact the traffic on the bridge. The approaches are reinforced concrete arches and the 590' main span over the river is, obviously, a steel arch. The upper level was designed for four lanes of traffic and the lower level held six streetcar tracks. The streetcar deck was abandoned in 1955. The swing span was removed from the Superior Viaduct in 1923.
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| HAER OHIO,18-CLEV,22--28 (CT) via Dennis DeBruler |
The 1917 bridge was designed by J. A. L. Waddell. I recognize him as the pioneer of the lift bridge design starting with the 1894 Halsted Bridge in Chicago, IL. He also did pioneering work with reinforced concrete bridges in the 1915 12th Street Trafficway Viaduct in Kansas City, MO. And the 591' nickel-steel arch of this bridge shows he added steel arches to his design repertoire. [ahr-kc]
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| Thomas Wentzel posted Cleveland, Ohio. Detroit-Superior Bridge shot from old Superior Viaduct, circa 1920. |
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| Feb 2017 Photo by Douglas Butler via BridgeHunter, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) [It is framed by the Detroit-Superior Bridge and a flour mill is in the background. The Center Street Bridge is in the foreground.] |
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| Rust & Dirt: NW Pennsylvania History posted Roy Nagy: High-level Bridge aka Detroit-Superior Bridge with Superior Viaduct on this side of it. Douglas Butler sharedDetroit Superior Viaduct Swing Span Bridge is now gone Rust & Dirt: NW Pennsylvania History. |
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| Richard Wagner posted Detroit-Superior Bridge looking north in the 1930s. Note the trolly in the lower level. Terrence Kilbane: Always called it the High Level Bridge. Bob Edwards: It was called the high level because it replaced the lower level Superior Viaduct seen behind it. At the time all of the lower level bridges needed a swing or lift section to allow ship traffic on the river. That really jammed up traffic. Thomas Wintzel shared |
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| Richard Wagner posted Detroit-Superior Bridge (High Level) looking north in the 1930s. Note the trolly in the lower level. Terrence Kilbane: Always called it the High Level Bridge. Bob Edwards: It was called the high level because it replaced the lower level Superior Viaduct seen behind it. At the time all of the lower level bridges needed a swing or lift section to allow ship traffic on the river. That really jammed up traffic. |
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| Richard Wagner posted The Detroit-Superior Bridge under construction in 1915. “An engineering feat rivaling the great Pyramids of Egypt “so said Cleveland mayor Newton D. Baker at the time. |
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| Bridges Now and Then posted Building the Detroit-Superior Bridge, Cleveland, Ohio, c. 1915. (Cleveland Memory Project) |
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| Eric Mortensen posted The Buffalo heading up river on the Cuyahoga this afternoon. |
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| Thom Sheridan posted Cleveland Skyline from the Viaduct, 1983 Roy Nagy: Lower right…Center Street Swing Bridge…built 1901. It is hard to believe you can still drive over a 120 year old bridge in the heart of the city. [According to the comments, the B&O bridge was abandoned a year later.] Jim Arc shared |
Thomas Wentzel shared a post by Edward Beerer of two photos with the comment: "Two photos of Detroit Superior bridge. Under construction, and when the trolley cars ran on the lower deck."
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| Thomas Wentzel posted Cleveland, Ohio. Detroit-Superior Bridge shot from old Superior Viaduct, circa 1920. [Note the flour mill in the background.] |
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| Interlake Steamship Company posted *Where industry, innovation and infrastructure meet* At the center of it all, our M/V Mark W. Barker, a ship built for the future, navigating the crooked Cuyahoga River winding through our great city on a great lake. Randy Matheson: I saw this boat for the first time the other day in the soo. I was surprised how small it was. Now I see why.Linda Gaeth Boldyreff: Does the Cuyahoga rate as one of the most challenging to navigate? The videos I've seen of ships navigating it sure seem so. Dave Wagner: All Great Lakes Captain’s are also licensed pilots most are licensed all the way out to the mouth of the seaway some are also licensed for some areas of the Atlantic coast , so unlike foreign ships pilots are already on board. Terri Hoag: Amazing picture! I didn’t realize how crooked the Cuyahoga River was! Andrew Klatt: Terri Hoag Cuyahoga translates from a variety of Native American languages to “crooked”. It’s named accordingly 👍🏻 Janey Anderson shared Darryl Harper: Why ships of that length are called "river class" with a length of about 640'. Ship was built because U.S. flagged fleets had scrapped or sold almost all ships of that size. Several were sold to LLT which specialized in river class; though only named ship Cuyahoga and Saginaw left, both former U.S. flagged fleet ships. Algoma has built quite a few 640' footers, two with designs like the new Barker (Innovator and Integrity). These largely replaced earlier scrapped ships. James Torgeson shared The nearly new 639’ Mark W. Barker (2022) is working the ore shuttle on the serpentine Cuyahoga River from Whiskey Island to the Cliffs Cleveland Works. |
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| safe_image for Could Veterans Memorial Bridge Become Cleveland's 'Low Line'? The Detroit Superior Bridge circa 1930. Cleveland Historical “Completed in 1917, with a final cost of $5.3 million ($122 million in 2023), the Detroit-Superior Bridge, as it was then known, was the city's first fixed, high-level bridge.” |
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