P&LE = Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad
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| Photo from HAER PA,4-BEAV,1--1 from pa3716 |
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| HAER-data |
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| Don Greathouse posted Monaca ,Beaver County |
Beaver County,Penna Historic Exploration posted two photos with the comment:
I guarantee you this is a bridge you've never seen in real life! Probably never a picture of it either! Maybe your great grandparents or older have ( if they were in the area between 1884- 1910. My direct great grandfather just maybe could have seen it being torn down & the new one be built. They settled in New Brighton about that time ( 1910).This Monaca- Beaver Bridge was the second RR bridge to be built in this area & the last to be torn down. Apparently, there was nothing wrong with it other than it had just one track. P&LE wanted to" cash in" on Jones & Laughlin's huge steel business as far as carrying their freight. And that they did. J& L Steel is an old steel company based out of the Pittsburgh region, for those who are unfamiliarized with the subject. One of their key plants was located in Woodlawn & Aliquppa ,PA along the Ohio just North of Pittsburgh & a little South of the bridge of discussion. Maybe 4 miles away from this bridge, roughly.The Beaver County Jail & other misc. buildings now sit where the enormous plants & smokestacks once adorned the low skies. J& L once employed over 20,000 workers. They, along with other local steel mills like: Babcock & Wilcox, Crucible Steel, Koppel Steel, Republic Steel, U.S Steel , & Bessemer Steel, etc., played an unequivical role in the vast amount of effort in our arms advancements during WW2.Back to the bridge ( we can say that the little hint of history on steel mills was just to " bridge" the gap between these two bridges! I need an excuse this morning for my ADHD thinking, I guess. The old 1884-1910 bridge was replaced by the Monaca - Beaver Bridge we all know & love today. It has been & is currently used by the CSX freight line.If we can find a photo of the very first bridge- that would complete this historic trio of the Monaca- Beaver RR bridges! We can try but no promises we find it...or soon. Thanks for reading. Enjoy your weekend!
Robin Russo: Aliquippa Park was built by the P&LE railroad in the late 1800's to entice new passengers to railroad travel. By 1905 the park fell into disrepair and it was put up for sale. In 1907 Jones and Laughlin purchased the park as well as most of the land around it, because the location provided access routes to raw materials and river transportation for a growing market. The railroad was a plus as well. Then they built the J&L Aliquippa Works.
Ken Heitzenrater shared
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| Mike Medina commented on the above post Removal of bridge #2. Dated Dec 1910. Just for fun. |
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| Robin Russo commented on the above post There were only two Bridges at this location. The first train to go over the first bridge was Sept. 21, 1878. A large portion of the bridge was damaged in the 1884 flood. That section was over land not the river. It was repaired and put back in use until the bridge you see today was built. This info can be found in the two early history books on Beaver County. |
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| Robin Russo commented on his comment |
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| Robin Russo commented on his comment |
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| One of 26 images posted by Mike Brady [Many of the images show the stresses calculated for each member of the truss.] Pictures are of the original Stress sheet of the P&LE cantilever bridge at Monaca - Beaver PA . Appears to be drawn on vellum type paper using a ink well pen. All of the math about the bridge is here. Live load,dead load, impact load and wind load Date is Jan. 31, 1908. Bought this on eBay around 20 years ago. Was unaware at the time of purchase of what I was getting. Wow, when I actually received it. Total calculated design load on one of the main bearings is 11,994.000 or 12 million pounds or ( 6 thousand tons). |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad Bridge (part of the New York Central system), crossing the Ohio River at the Beaver Station in the borough of Bridgewater, Beaver County sometime prior to 1915. Ron Mele: Brandon Peck The P&LE and NYC had a physical connection via the NYC line running south out of Ashtabula to Youngstown. |
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| One of 26 images posted by Mike Brady |
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| One of 29 images posted by Mike Brady New booklet from eBay today with some never seen photos of the great cantilever bridge at Beaver PA. to go along with my original stress print on this bridge. |
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| Jeff Picka posted Cantilever portion of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie bridge over the Ohio River from Beaver to Monaca PA. |
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| Photo taken by Bob Harris in May 2012 from Bridge Hunter |
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| Bob Ciminel posted A Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railway freight has just crossed the Ohio River at Beaver, PA and is heading up the Beaver River toward Beaver Falls. (From a painting by Howard Fogg.) Bruce R Pier: This was part of a series of paintings commissioned by then President of the P&LE John W. Barriger. They were compiled into a soft bound book and given to the major shippers along the line. My father had a copy of the book, I remember going through it regularly. It's disposition I don't know. [There are some more comments about that book.] Sanjay Das: One of the last Alco built steam locomotives... Joe Malone: That's one of the rare NYC Berkshires |
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| Robby Beck posted in a P&LE group Ohio river bridge [Judging from the comments, the official name for the bridge is 11Y.] |
Mark Arnold posted five photos with the comment: "CSX's Ohio River crossing between Monaca and Beaver Pennsylvania."
Pedro RamosPedro and 757 others joined RAILROAD BRIDGES, TRESTLES, TUNNELS AND CUTS within the last two weeks. Give them a warm welcome into your community! Wow makes you wonder how were they ever able to build a massive structure like this.
Dennis DeBruler One of the reasons for building cantilever designs is that it allows minimal interference during construction in the navigation channel. Typically, they would use timber falsework to build the trusses between the abutments and piers. Then they would use travelling derricks along the top chords to build the other sides with minimal falsework. I found some construction photos for a bridge: http://industrialscenery.blogspot.com/.../csxc-1917.... But the top chords on this bridge have a very steep angle, so I don't know if they could have used a travelling derrick.
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| Kenneth James White shared his post And here's yet ANOTHER Ohio River colossus: The Beaver Bridge(P&LE) at Beaver Falls Pa. [I see from Bridge Hunter that this is a HAER photo.] |
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| Mark Hinsdale posted Sunday Night @ the Oldies "Red, White & Blue" "Bicentennial" liveried Pittsburgh & Lake Erie #1501 makes a splashy entrance to Beaver PA as it comes off the big P&LE bridge over the Ohio River with the westbound afternoon Pittsburgh to Beaver Falls (College) commuter train. The weekday train was the last surviving remnant of a once robust passenger train service over P&LE rails, between Pittsburgh, Youngstown and, via the Erie Railroad, Cleveland. May, 1976 photo by Mark Hinsdale Mark Hinsdale shared |
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| Steven M Geisler posted Big Bridge, Little Train. CSX B36-7 5857 Q136 . Monaca, PA. May 26, 1997. Steven M Geisler shared |
John Wrynn posted two photos with the comment: "Another shot of the "Big Bridge" over the Ohio River. Also, photo of a smaller bridge that spans the Beaver River where it meets the Ohio."
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| Ian Bowling posted CSX Q331 passes over the ex P&LE Beaver Bridge to continue it’s journey West towards New Castle, PA. The tracks below are the NS the Cleveland Line and in the distance to the left, are the tracks for the NS Fort Wayne Line. Enjoy! Bridgewater, PA Roger Riblett shared [The first road bridge is the Rochester-Monaca Bridge.] |
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| Jamie Adams posted Chessie/B&O #4106. - The location or photographer aren't mentioned on the slide mount, unfortunately, but the color of the trees, the way the image is composed, and the subject matter make this one, one of my favorites amongst the others. - Kodachrome slide. October 1981. Collection of J.L. Adams. John Rompala: P&LE Bridge, the photo was taken from the Signal on #2 Track on the Monaca side of the Ohio River, MP PLE 25. |
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| Charles Geletzke Jr. posted The P&LE 1581 & 1572 were seen at Monaca, PA on October 31, 1981. (Jack G. Tyson photo) Ben Ruszkoski: Switching the glass plant. |
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| safe_image for One person hit, killed by train on Monaca-Beaver Bridge over Ohio River Steve Bowser shared |
Are pedestrians allowed on this bridge?
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| Street View, Dec 2021 |
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