1932 Hope Memorial and 1930-2005 Eagle Avenue Bridges in Cleveland, OH

1930 Eagle Avenue Lift: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; 3D Satellite)

Rehabilitated in 1991, but closed in 2005.

1932 Hope Memorial: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; HAER; Satellite)

Also named the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge

I figured that the Hope Bridge was an arch bridge. But I was surprised to learn from the Historic Bridges page that it is a cantilever bridge. I guess the truss is hinged mid-span and rigid across the piers. The bridge has a second deck below the main deck, but it has never been used.

Fred Bultman posted
Built at Cleveland, Vandoc spent most of her career in Canadian service. She is at Collision Bend heading down to the lake, her anchor is ready to drop if needed. She may stop at Dock 24 for a cargo of coal to take back up the lakes but it looks like her hatches are closed. Late 1950s.

When I first saw the above photo, I figured it was the NYC lift bridge and the arched looking truss bridge was behind it. But I quickly determined it was not those two bridges. So I did some hunting with the satellite map and street views.

The following street view confirms that I have found the correct lift and high bridge for the Facebook photo.

Street View

Before I discovered that Collision Bend is marked on the Google Map and then found the above street view, I found the following street view to verify that Hope Memorial has the truss structure that is in the Facebook photo. 

Street View

 

1:02 video
Slow and steady wins in the race to deliver essential cargoes along the narrow Cuyahoga River. It's shiphandling at its finest on our 700-foot articulated tug-barge Dorothy Ann-Pathfinder today on her way to deliver stone from Marblehead. Our crews make it look easy but it takes impressive skills, total focus and a lot of teamwork. The captain is at the helm, navigating and requesting that the many bridges lift or swing open, while mates call distances at the bow and stern of the ship. 

Betancourt Felix posted
Douglas Butler shared
Credit to Betancourt Felix Eagle Avenue Lift Bridge is left abandoned and probably has been demolished.

Jacob Kniola: Still [May 2024] up, but slated for demo.

Matt Pastorelle: I was one of the bridge inspectors for this bridge. It is not pinned in place, it’s held up there by the hand break. The bridge is slowly dropping, there was a white line painted when it lifted into its current place, since its last operation the river span has stared dropping (evidence by the white line no longer being a line but one side shifted down). The lower chord has numerous through holes. That is one of if not the most important structural member of the bridge. Matter of fact it’s so unsafe about 7-8 years ago we stopped climbing it for fear it would collapse under the weight of the inspectors. The tower legs also have areas of severe section loss and holes. The structure is an eminent danger to anyone near it or under it on the river. Matter of fact the person that took this photo put their life in jeopardy just standing that close!

 

safe_image for Eagle Avenue lift bridge to be demolished
The demo will cost $3m. It was the first lift bridge built in Cleveland. It is being torn down just as high rises and brewpubs are planned for development around the bridge.

The lift bridge in the background was not the one I was after. This is the NS/NKP bridge that is on the upstream side of the Hope Bridge.

Street View

 

Roger Smith posted
Mark W. Barker was unloading at Lafarge on the Cuyahoga River on a spectacular mid-November [2023] day in Cleveland.
Craig Zupan: It’s not Lafarge anymore. It’s called Holcin.
Dennis DeBruler: Also, nice views of the Hope Memorial [left] and I-90 bridges.

A street view that better matches the photo. It unfortunately also has a better view of the chain-link fence. Note that the NKP bridge is peaking over the top of the Hope Bridge in the left background.

Street View

C Hanchey via BridgeHunter-eagle, License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC)

The lift bridge replaced a swing bridge.

Douglas Butler posted
From Cleveland State University Cleveland then and now, an old Eagle Avenue Swing Bridge in Cleveland, OH was replaced with a vertical lift bridge.

North Coast Aerial Images posted

Little bit of smoke, little bit after sunrise, American Courage rounding Collison Bend on a cool fall morning.

Cleveland is a whole different kind of beautiful.

Mike Pinzone posted

Jann Mayer, Sep. 2019 via BridgeHunter-eagle, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
The incline of the bridge is apparent from this angle.
[Historic Bridges indicates the incline was part of the design! The viaduct that led to this bridge has been torn down.]

  

Truss & Rivets posted
Here we are looking north on the Cuyahoga, just south of Eagle Avenue. This lift bridge was Cleveland’s first Vertical Lift and is of the Waddell-Style cable span drive, one of the first examples in the world. This bridge now sits abandoned in the raised position. In 2004 a civil engineer contracted with inspecting the bridge found a significant degradation in the structure, and the city closed the bridge permanently, demolishing the approach span to the east.
[This photo also clearly shows that the road had a grade across this bridge.]
Jonathan Konopka posted
Eagle Avenue Bridge in 1972. Unknown photographer.

 

James Lattiemore posted
Douglas Butler shared
Credit to James Lattiemore Cleveland, Ohio's own Eagle Avenue [on the left] Carter Road and Industrial Flats Lift Bridges over the Cuyahoga River.

Bridges & Tunnels with Sherman Cahal posted

The Eagle Avenue Bridge offers some of the best views of Cleveland, Ohio, if one dares to climb to the top! This unique lift crossing has been out of service since 2005 when the connecting approach roads to the main span were demolished.

⤐ Check out many new photos of the Eagle Avenue Bridge at http://bridgestunnels.com/location/eagle-avenue-bridge/

Bridges Now and Then shared

HAER OHIO,18-CLEV,39--2 (CT)
Significance: The American Institute of Steel Construction praised the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge as one of the most beautiful bridges of 1932.
[I have no idea where that railroad bridge is. I spent some time looking for it on a satellite map, but I could not find it. Update: I could not find it because it was removed between 1984 and 1994. Per David Sharp's comments below, it was a Big Four bridge to some industrial trackage on the east side of the river.]

The eight Guardians of Traffic on the four stone pylons are a reminder that the 1930s was the Art Deco era. (Historic Bridges indicates that Lords of Transportation is a more accurate name.)

Erick Daniel Drost, Oct 2013 via Hope BH, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)
I'm glad that a BH comment mentioned the cement truck so that I could look for it.
Street View, once again Artificial Intelligence doesn't know when a face is on a statue. It was good at blurring just the face.

 

Gabe Wasylko Photography posted
Day and Night Guardians in Cleveland, Ohio

Dave Myers: funny how these things were barely known to exist until the baseball team name change... a name almost no one wanted. many wanted to go back to something vintage like spiders

Because of the NS bridge, a railfan caught a good view of the Hope Bridge in his background.

Mark Hinsdale posted

"Patience is a Virtue (& I'm Not Very Virtuous)..."

After a seemingly endless wait in my perch overlooking the City of Cleveland, I was finally rewarded with this Norfolk Southern westbound train of auto parts, crossing the Cuyahoga River vertical lift bridge on the former Nickel Plate Road main line. September, 2000 photo by Mark Hinsdale
Jerry W. Jordak You still can do this shot, and it's more open to the right now as the old cold storage building that was behind the trees was removed when the new Innerbelt bridge was built.
This is what it looked like a couple months ago. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jwjordak/49543901338/
Mark Hinsdale Wow! That is much better! Very nice, and a better subject as well, Jerry!
Jerry W. Jordak I dunno....those NS high-hoods you got were pretty choice too.

Mark Hinsdale shared

Fred Bultman posted
A new restoration of a favorite image, Lasalle outbound in the Cuyahoga, with the Innerbelt under construction behind her, sometime in the mid 1950s.
Steve Rowan shared
[Hope Memorial is in the background, I-90 is being constructed, NS/NKP is the railroad viaduct and Big Four has the railroad service at the ground level.]

Bill Kloss posted
Today's photo from the Chuck Drumm files is a color image of Columbia's Buckeye (2) at Mid Continent Coal & Coke in Cleveland. No date with photo.

Bill Kloss posted
Kinsman's Chicago Trader laid up in Cleveland. A Chuck Drumm photo from the early 70s.
Fred Bultman: Getting ready for fit out. [Unfortunately, I don't know what that means.]
[A rare photo of the Big Four Bridge.]

1 of 4 photos posted by Cleveland Fire
Beautiful pics of #CLEFIRE Engine 21, the Fire Tug Anthony J Celebrezze, throwing water for the #blazingpaddle Paddlefest last weekend. Thanks to Share the River for the photos. We should have a NEW Fire Boat for next year!
Geoffrey Moreland shared
[The building is the Cleveland Fire Station.]

safe_image for Eagle Avenue lift bridge to be demolished
"It was the first vertical lift bridge built in Cleveland — previous movable bridges were either drawbridges that hinged at one end or swung/rotated."
The city does not plan to replace it, but they are allowing a bunch of development to be done on Scranton Peninsula.

neo-trans

0:32 timelapse video @ 0:08
Rex Gary: My son and I made that trip on the Laud almost 20 years ago when he was still in High School. Seven hours to go 2.2 miles. I was in the wheelhouse during most of the trip. Incredibly we were told they back down the river from the steel mill to save time/money by not taking the time to turn around just downstream from the mill in the turning basin. Without a doubt the toughest navigation anywhere and they make it look easy. My son later graduated from Kings Point and spent over 10 years offshore as Chief Mate/ Relief Captain in the oil exploration industry .

8 drone photos               some history and some more photos