1819: wooden covered bridge designed by Lothrop.
1859: (Bridge Hunter)1892: A bowstring truss designed by Theodore Cooper
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1928: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; HAER; HAER-data; pghbridges; B&T; Satellite) Roberto Clemente Bridge
The 1928 bridge was rehabilitated in 1995 and recently. [BridgeHunter-1928] It is one of the Three Sisters Eye-Bar Suspension Bridges.
Roberto Clemente was a baseball player. [plaque]
The 1859 bridge was designed by John A. Roebling. The main span was 344' and the shore spans were 177' and 171'. The four cast-iron towers were about 22' high and 22" in diameter. [HAER-data]
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| BridgeHunter-1859 Sixth Street Suspension Bridge, on line of Pittsburgh, Allegheny & Manchester Railway. Photo taken from Transit Journal; October 1891 |
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| History's Canvas posted [The description is just platitudes and errors.] |
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| Bridges Now and Then posted The St. Clair Street (now Sixth Street) Bridge, shown here in 1890, spanned the Allegheny River between Allegheny City and Pittsburgh from 1857 to 1892. The second Seventh Street Bridge can be seen to the right. (Brookline Connection) Dave Frieder: Engineer of design, John A. Roebling! |
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| The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh updated Bridges Now and Then posted In 1859, architect John Roebling designed the "St. Clair Street" Bridge (later known as the Sixth Street Bridge) connecting the sister cities of Pittsburgh & Allegheny. He would later go on to design the Brooklyn Bridge in 1869. Despite its popularity, it was unable to support the ever-increasing traffic demand & heavier loads. It was not suitable for the new electric trolley cars & restrictions were posted limiting speed and light vehicle load weight. A new bridge was necessary so in 1892, the bridge was dismantled. (Carnegie Library Photograph colorized with #Deoldify) Dave Frieder: Engineer, Not Architect. Jackson-Township historical preservation posted The old Sixth Street Bridge in Downtown Pittsburgh (circa 1859-1892). (Photo from https://www.facebook.com/OddPittsburgh) Clevon M. Owens: Designed by John A. Roebling, founder of Saxonburg, PA, and creator of wire rope. He designed several suspension bridges in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately none of his bridges in Pittsburgh exists. His world famous Brooklyn Bridge still exists today. Robert Papke: Clevon M. Owens the Smithfield Bridge was designed by Roebling and is still in use today. Dennis DeBruler: Robert Papke Roebling designed the 1846 bridge, not the 1883 bridge that we have today. Today's bridge was designed by Gustav Lindenthal. |
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| The Odd, Mysterious & Fascinating History of Pittsburgh commented Another colorized one |
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| 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 posted Suspension Bridge across the Allegheny, at St. Clair St. • Pittsburgh circa early 1900s! |
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| Library of Congress via HistoricBridges |
The bowstring truss was floated downriver to become the bridge between Neville Island and Coraopolis.
A bowstring truss is in the background of this 1912 photo of the 7th Street Bridge.
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| danepieri via Bridge Hunter-1884 |
1928 Suspension
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| HAER PA,2-PITBU,78A--4 4. Sixth Street Bridge in foreground, Seventh and Ninth in distance. - Three Sisters Bridges, Sixth Street Bridge, Spanning Allegheny River at Sixth Street, Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, PA |
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| Jackson-Township historical preservation posted House boats afloat at the 6th Street Bridge in Downtown Pittsburgh during the Flood of March 17, 1936. The devastating flood of 1936 struck Pittsburgh on Tuesday, March 17. Newspapers nationwide called it “a disaster of undreamed proportions that beggared description.” Downtown was underwater: The Triangle was swept by unprecedented flood. Debris from many upstream communities swirled past Pittsburgh in one of the most rapid river currents on record. Stores, restaurants, theaters and other public places from the Point up to Wood St. were flooded. “From the elevation, the Golden Triangle looked as if it had truly become a cradle of the deep,” The Pittsburgh Press said. In the flooded area were Pittsburgh’s leading enterprises, including the department stores of the Gimbel brothers, McCreery, Meyer Jonassen, Joseph Horne and Rosenbaum. The Pitt National and Farmers National Banks, the Stanley, Penn and Fulton Theaters, the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co., the warehouses of the Pittsburgh plate Glass Co., and the exclusive millionaires’ Duquesne Club were also flooded. Pittsburgh merchants and industrialists were estimated to have lost from $10 million to $200 million in the flood. Houseboats were cut off from shore. Over the hills of the North Side people stood watching the swollen rivers below. "The Joseph Horne Co., at Penn Ave. and Stanwix St., suffered the most, perhaps, because it was closest to the surging Allegheny," The Pittsburgh Press reported. At their peak, the flood waters reached the second floor. The Press Building on the Boulevard of the Allies was badly damaged. As power went down, Pittsburgh transportation was completely paralyzed. The city was in a state of emergency. President Roosevelt called upon federal agencies to lend support to the region and appointed a special emergency relief committee. Adding to the horror of the situation and citizens’ despair was the complete paralysis of the electric power and water facilities. Fires added to the gravity of the crisis. Citizens of Pittsburgh were requested to turn off all gas connections at the main meters where the flood water was entering basements. They were asked to make sure to disconnect heaters where gas thermostats were used to prevent fire hazards. The disaster drew national and even international attention. Newspapers worldwide covered the great Pittsburgh flood. Don Hirsch, The Pittsburgh Press news reeler, went on the air after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, to broadcast the complete of story of the Pittsburgh flood to the country and to the world. “Newspapers all over the nation, listening in, picked up his voice and from his words gleaned enough news to bolster their fragile news stories.” That was the time, long before smartphones, Twitter and Vine, when the news associations were hampered in distributing flood news by the fact that telephones were cut off and the lack of power made distribution via teletype impossible. In 1907, the river reached a mark of 38.7 feet at the Point, in 1783, it was 44.1 feet. The flood levels of The Great St. Patrick’s Day Flood surpassed both figures, the water levels in 1936 peaked at 46 feet. “Not within the memory of the oldest citizen, or in the records of the weather bureau has such a flood struck the Pittsburgh district,” The Pittsburgh Press wrote at the time. (Text from Mila Sanina via https://www.facebook.com/pittsburghpostgazette) (Photo from https://www.facebook.com/pittsburghpostgazette) Joe Quinn: And Cincinnati's worst flood ever less than a year later? [Evidently. I have trouble keeping track of the 1936 vs. 1937 floods. I know the lower Ohio River got hit hard in 1937. I just checked, the Kentucky River was part of the 1937 flood. [Dennis DeBruler]] |
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| 20220817 1186, cropped |
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| Andy Sun, Jul 2019 |
This is one of three sister bridges in a row that share the same eye-bar, self-anchored suspension bridge design. For more information on the design and construction of this bridge, see my notes on the other two sister bridges.
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| Street View |
"The bridge has a 430 Feet (292.6 Meters) span between towers, 960 Feet (11.6 Meters) total suspended length, and 39.7 Feet (12.1 Meters) of navigation vertical clearance. The listed Minimum Vertical Underclearance is 14.3 Feet (4.36 Meters) Over Highway." [HistoricBridges]
The 6th Street Bridge is the suspension bridge in the background of this view. The Rachel Carson Bridge in the foreground is of the same design. So this gives us a better view of the design of the bridge.
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| Street View |
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| Craig Schofield posted The Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA. Remembering the Great One on the 51st anniversary of his tragic death. (Photo taken June 7, 2016) |
We get an overview of this bridge and a detail of the self-anchoring attachment to the stiffening girder from the Andy Warhole Bridge. The stiffening girder runs the full length of the bridge and forms a barrier between the cantilevered walkway and the traffic lanes.
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| Street View |
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| HAER-gallery |
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| Allegheny County Department of Public Works photo via ConstructionEquipmentGuide A 34.5m rehabilitation should be done in Dec 2023. "We are required to maintain a 39-foot clearance for Allegheny River traffic within the 180-foot navigation channel beneath the bridge's midspan," said Brent Wasko, public information officer of the Allegheny County Department of Public Works. |
These photos from a river tour shows the safety netting and some tarps for the rehabilitation work.
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| 20220817 1187 |
This bridge is the lowest on the river.
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| Allegheny County Government posted Jan 1, 2024 The Roberto Clemente (Sixth Street) Bridge in Pittsburgh has reopened to traffic. The closure, which began on February 14, 2022, was required for a $35.6 million bridge rehabilitation project. Read more: https://bit.ly/4aIjWjm |
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| Mitch Waxman posted On Pirates game days, #pittsburgh closes the 1928 vintage ‘Roberto Clemente’ - or Sixth Street Bridge - to vehicle traffic and uses the span as a pedestrian ramp to PNC Park. [It is fitting that a bridge named after a baseball player would be closed for baseball games.] |
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| City Life Adventures by Carla Cardello posted Close up of Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente Bridge during sunset Carla Cardello shared Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA |
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| Karen DeBruler, Public Domain |
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| Karen DeBruler, Public Domain |
Peter Moreno posted three photos with the comment:
The Roberto Clemente Bridge, also known as the Sixth Street Bridge, spans the Allegheny River in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.Named for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player Roberto Clemente, it is one of three parallel bridges called The Three Sisters. The Three Sisters are self-anchored suspension bridges and are significant because they are the only trio of nearly identical bridges—as well as the first self-anchored suspension spans—built in the United States.
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