Industrial History: Ohio Street Bridges over Buffalo River in Buffalo, NY

1866: a swing bridge

1904: (Bridge Hunter) This was the world's first bridge using the Brown bascule design. [buffaloah]

1961: (Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

There is a reason why Buffalo is called silo city. In this street view, the headhouse of the Standard elevator is to the left of the bridge, the Cargill Electric elevator is behind the bridge and LaFarge (Huron Cement) is to the right of the bridge. [DeBruler]

Street View

This lift bridge is "tower driven." That means that the machinery to move the cables are located in "houses" on top of the towers. [buffaloah] Most lift bridges, like the Michigan Avenue Bridge that is the nest one downriver, have the lift machinery in a "house" on top of the span. I wonder how they synchronize the lift rates with the tower driven design. In a span driven design, the lift rates are naturally synchronized because everything is geared to one electrical motor.

Street View

Street View, Oct 2020

Bridges Now and Then posted
Buffalo, New York's, Ohio Street Lift Bridge in 1963, raised to permit The Harvester lake freighter to pass. (WNY Heritage)
James Torgeson shared
International Harvester once owned two lake freighters, The International and The Harvester, which served its Wisconsin Steel Works on the Calumet River in South Chicago. Like most private Great Lakes fleets, IH's took on spot cargoes at times to keep their vessels running loaded. Here we see the Str. The Harvester carrying a grain cargo to Buffalo.

While researching LaFarge, I encountered a view where the bridge was closed in Sep 2014. I wonder why, and for how long, it was closed. And it closed again in May 2021 for a $15m rehab project that is expected to last until summer 2022. [wgrz]

Street View, Sep 2014

Bridget Lynn posted
Ohio St Bridge

John Reusser: What do they do with Mud ?

1 of 8 photos posted by Brian R. Wroblewski
Janey wants it rough & ready for Thursday so here you go. A series of shots of the Leudtke gang moving mud in the Buffalo River. It doesn't get any dirtier than this. They dredge up there every 2 years to remove all the silt that comes down in the Spring. The navigation channel is 22 feet deep but it can fill right up in certain places in a matter of a few months if there's heavy rain & lots of flow.

Brian commented on John's comment
They pump it into the Stoney Point CDF (Containment Disposal Facility) for now. They did a massive environmental clean up of the river a few years ago. The ultimate goal is to just drop it in the lake but it has to be tested & so far the tests aren't coming back clean enough yet.

1 of 8 photos posted by Brian R. Wroblewski
[I've added this second photo from Brian's dredging sequence because of some additional comments in this post.]
Brian R. Wroblewski: [The crane] uses the bucket to "steer" the empty exactly where he wants it by basically dragging the scow around with it.
They even use the bucket to move the derrick boat around when the tug isn't there. He'l drop a spud & use the bucket to maneuver the barge around it or drop the bucket & grab the bottom & pull the barge towards it by reeling in the cable.

Jerry M Malloy posted

ERNEST R. BREECH passing under the Ohio St. Lift Bridge on the Buffalo River, Buffalo NY, with Kinsale Tug towing.

Launched into service Sept. 24 1952 by Defoe Shipbuilding, Bay City Mich. Original name “Charles L. Hutchinson” from 1952-1962. Purchased by the Ford Motor Co. in 1962 and renamed the “Ernest R. Breech.” Sailed as the Breech until 1988. In 1988 it was sold to Minch Transit C. of Cleveland.(Kinsman Lines) and named “Kinsman Independent.” Operated under that name until 2005.

Purchased by Voyageur Marine Transports in 2005 and named “Voyageur Independent” until 2008 when it was acquired by Lower Lakes Towing LTD. From 2008 - 2022 sailing as the “Ojibway.”

TUG “KINSALE”

The Kinsale was originally built in 1939 as the "J. Raymond Russell" for the Newtown Creek Towing Company of New York. It was sold to McAllister Towing & Transportation of New York, in 1961, and renamed "Muriel McAllister" in 1963. She was sold to the Gaelic Tugboat Company of Detroit, in 1975 and renamed "Kinsale." The Kinsale was sold in 1991 to American Tugboat Company Inc. and departed the Great Lakes. It was eventually abandoned at Jacksonville, Florida, and was cut up for scrap in 2008.

Jerry M Malloy: I remember the captain and/or one of the crew members of the tug Kinsale, only spoke Polish, and was thrilled when he came to the Harbor Inn and could converse freely with my parents who both were of Polish ancestry and spoke Polish fluently.

This Brown Bascule design reminds me of the Strauss Overhead Counterweight bridge in Zanesville, OH. Unlike all other bascule bridge designs I have seen, the vertical plane of the counterweight does not change as the bridge is raised. Instead linkages slightly move the pivot point as hydraulic rams push on the lower cord. Cables from the counterweight go around a curved track on the upper cord so that the horizontal forces on the hydraulic rams remain small.

Photo via Google eBook, p707 via BridgeHunter-old

Unlike all other bascule bridge designs I have seen, the vertical plane of the counterweight does not change as the bridge is raised. Instead linkages slightly move the pivot point as hydraulic rams push on the lower cord. Cables from the counterweight go around a curved track on the upper cord so that the horizontal forces on the hydraulic rams remain small. Given the complexity of this design, I'll bet that the Buffalo bridge was not only the world's first, it was close to the last bridge built with this design.