LTV/J&L Connecting Hot Metal Bridge over Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, PA

(Bridge Hunter; HAER; Historic Bridges, Hot Metal; Historic Bridges, Mon Con; PGHbridges; 3D Satellite)

Out-of-service: May 1979. But the bridge remained because it was carrying 20 utility lines including water, steam, gas and power lines. [PA277B]

(Update: the content concerning the Jones and Laughlin Steel mills has been moved to here.)

There are two truss bridges using shared piers. The Monongahela Connecting RR Bridge is on the upstream side and was reopened for road use in 2000. The Hot Metal Bridge was reopened for trail use in 2007. [PGHbridges] When the Mon Con was converted to street use, they removed a very wide shared truss on the north end. [Historic Bridges]

Bryan Rubican posted
The Monongahela Connecting Railroad Bridge and the Hot Metal Bridge, once part of the sprawling J&L Steel complex.
[The upstream side is on the right.]

These two bridges connected the Pittsburgh Works with the South Side Works of Jones and Laufphlin Steel.

Photo from HAER PA,2-PITBU,65C--6 from pa2798

In 1887, a railroad bridge was constructed to link the the two sides of the operation. The upstream side carried two tracks for the Monongahela Connecting Railroad. The downstream side carried a single track used to shuttle hot metal from the furnaces to the rolling mills. Previous to this direct connection, the metal had to be reheated before being worked....Because the bridges share piers and have similar truss designs, the pair are usually referred to simply as The Hot Metal Bridge. It is more accurate to give this name only to the downstream side. The floor of this side has metal plates lining the floor -- protecting the river traffic and the wooden ties from the molten metal and sparks spewing from the opening in the top of each ladle railroad car. [PGHbridges]

The hot metal bridge was added in 1899. [HAER]

Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation began a program in 1960 to improve steel production. One of the areas was to replace the fleet of 80 ton submarine ladles with 165 ton ladles. This required considerable work on the Hot Metal Bridge in order for the Mon Con to handle the heavier and longer submarine ladles. The first phase was to reduce the dead load. This was accomplished by removing the heavy fire brick trough that made up the deck system and replacing it with a light steel plate covered with granulated slag. This was necessary to prevent any hot metal splashing into the river. This work was done under traffic by company forces. The second phrase was to strengthen the top chord truss members. This was done by drilling holes in the web of the truss members and bolting with high tensile bolts through reinforcing plates. Over 7,000 bolts were placed. The work was designed by Structural Associates of Pittsburgh and erected by company forces. [PA277C]

 

Kenny Hall posted
" Monongahela 1947...Lawrence Gipe..oil painting

Tim Roolf commented on Kenny's post, cropped
The hot metal bridge, still delivering traffic from the south side to second avenue. Motor vehicles on the left and bikes/pedestrians on the right.