1915,2001 Exchange Street: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite) Joseph A. Scapelliti Memorial Bridge, E-230, Mill Street
Wide
This bridge carries Main, Saxton & Cottage Streets and a couple of parking lots. It is 475' wide because Main Street crosses it at a very acute angle. (The 475' width is from HAER below. An historic marker photo on BridgeHunter-wide claims 399'.)
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| HAER NY,32-LOCK,14A--14 14. VIEW SOUTH SOUTHWEST LOOKING UPSTREAM FROM ENTRANCE TO LOCKS 35 AND 71. THE BRIDGE IN THE VIEW IS NOTED FOR ITS EXTRAORDINARY WIDTH (475 FT.) RELATIVE TO ITS MODEST SPAN (116 FT. 10 IN.). WHEN CONSTRUCTED IN 1914 IT WAS CLAIMED TO BE THE WIDEST BRIDGE IN THE WORLD. MAIN STREET CROSSES IT DIAGONALLY, ALONG WITH TWO CROSS STREETS. - New York State Barge Canal, Lockport Locks, Richmond Avenue, Lockport, Niagara County, NY |
"The bridge looks like a deck plate girder, however engineering literature for the period comments that the bridge functions as a three hinge arch bridge, or "arch girder" design. This might come as a surprise since the bridge does not have a curved arch shape normally associated with the structure type. Closer visual inspection of the bridge reveals the hinges of the bridge. The unusual bridge design was chosen to maximize the vertical clearance under the deck. A large limestone rock foundation in the area, part of the Niagara Escarpment, enabled the design to work effectively and also provide clearance for boats with minimal blasting of rock....The length of the bridge varies throughout the width of the bridge, with lengths from just under 117 feet to just over 124 feet." [HistoricBridges-wide]
This is the middle hinge of the arch.
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| Digitally Zoomed |
I normally don't do a portal view of a concrete slab bridge, but I normally don't do a bridge that is as wide as a city block. The hand railing for the east side of the bridge is clearly visible on the right side of the view. Part of the hand railing for the west side is barely visible on the left side between the tree and the red-roofed building. Most of the parked cars that we see are on the bridge.
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| Street View, Aug 2022 |
Note the two truss bridges and the gasometer in the background.
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| Boston Public Library Flickr, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) |
The Erie Canal is drained during the winter months. Note the upstream gates of the locks that are peaking out from under the bridge.
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| Mar 2022 Photo by Josh Schmid via BridgeHunter-wide, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) View from Transit Street |
This view of the locks also shows the Big Bridge just upstream of the locks.
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| HAER NY,32-LOCK,14A--3 3. LOCKPORT LOCKS. 19TH CENTURY LOCKS VISIBLE ON RIGHT. ELECTRIC LIFT LOCKS (1909-1918) VISIBLE ON LEFT. - New York State Barge Canal, Lockport Locks, Richmond Avenue, Lockport, Niagara County, NY |
These two views of the cut for the Erie Canal that is west of Lockport show the "large limestone rock foundation" that HistoricBridges-wide mentions in the above quote.
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| Image from ErieCanal-1 "Deep Cutting Lockport" [looking west] -- from: Memoir, prepared ...by Cadwallader D. Colden (New York : Printed by order of the Corporation of New York, 1825) ; facing p. 299. -- Note the height of the towpath on the right (north) side. |
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| Image from ErieCanal-1 "Method of Excavating the Original Canal, West of Lockport" -- facing p. 26. See also the Original image from Colden's Memoir, facing p. 298. from Annual Report of the State Engineer and Surveyor of the State of New York for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1915 (Albany : J. B. Lyon Co, printers, 1916). |
High
The proper title for this bridge is: (Falls Road Railroad+CSX)/NYC.
HistoricBridges-high notes that this is not a through truss bridge that is upside down, but rather a deck truss. The main span is a Baltimore truss. Nathan also includes a general history of the bridges on the Erie Canal. Of note, the canal was upgraded to the New York State Barge Canal from 1905-18.
The cut-stone piers appear to be a demonstration of the strength of dolostone.
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| Mar 2022 Photo by Josh Schmid, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) |
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| Cori Willson posted A 😎 one from the berm looking east at Lockport. Lockport Railroad Bridge E-231 "The Upside-Down Bridge" Bridge Documentation [I removed his documentation because it was a verbatim copy of what is on the Historic Bridges web page.] Brian R. Wroblewski sharedThis bridge is still in use by the Falls Road RR. |
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| Image from ErieCanal-3, looking Southwest |
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| pinterest via BridgeHunter-high, looking Northeast |
3 of 4 photos posted by Coastie with a Camera Photography with the comment: "Today's Falls Road LB-1 job made a trip out to Knowlesville with RS-11 1802 providing the power. After crossing over the Erie Canal on the return journey westbound, a pair of canal boats utilized Lock #71 and crossed under the trestle approximately 15 minutes after the train had passed. Taken on: 05/12/2023"
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| a |
This is Lock #35. Lock #71 is out-of-frame to the right and behind the photographer and it is out-of-service.
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| b |
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| c |
Google Maps labels this bridge as Mill Street. The street has different names on opposite sides of the canal. Exchange Street is just a block long, but a sign on the bridge names it Exchange St.
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| Mar 2022 Photo via BridgeHunter-exchange, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA), looking Northeast |
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| Street View, Aug 2022, looking Southeast |
The bridge is raised by hydraulic rams in the end posts. The rams must have been installed as part of the rehabilitation because photos of the Adams Street Bridge show the use of a rack and pinion.
See the first photo by James Baughn in BridgeHunter-exchange for a photo of the bridge in its raised position.
This design that allows pedestrians to cross while the bridge is raised is rare in my experience. I've seen it only once before, which is another bridge on the Erie Canal. So it is rare for me only because I have yet to study a lot of Erie Canal bridges.
Adams Street
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| Street View, Aug 2019, looking Northeast from the Exchange Street Bridge |
In 2011, pedestrians could still use the bridge.
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| Street View, Jul 2011, looking Northwest |
But then someone evidently decided that it was not only too weak to hold people, it couldn't hold itself. The diagonal braces are part of some additional supports that they added to hold the bridge up.
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| Street View, Aug 2015 |
This view makes it obvious that the lift mechanism uses cables instead of rams. Note that the street has been replaced with grass.
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| Street View, Aug 2022 |
HistoricBridges-adams caught the bridge in the raised position before they added the extra bracing. That is how I learned that they added more supports. But Nathan does not allow copying nor linking to his photos. So you will have to go look for it.
I still haven't figured out how the cable system works. Everything is concealed when the bridge is lowered.
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| Street View, Oct 2007 |
Josh titled the photo below "Lift Mechanism." This view makes it obvious that it uses a rack-and-pinion system. This photo is on the north, or tower, side. Note that the above street view, which are of the south side, show that there are no racks on that side. The counterweight system must be good enough that lift machinery is needed only on the tower side. But I still can't figure out how the cables work with the counterweights. The HAER description below makes sense to me. But it doesn't explain the sheaves on top of the lifting frame, and that is what I don't understand. However it works, it is obvious that there is a lot of stuff underground. No wonder most lift bridges just build tall towers on each end.
The sixteen vertical-lift bridges on the Erie Canal are Warren pony trusses raised by an electrically-driven system of cables, counterweights, and sheaves. As described in the New York State Barge Canal National Register nomination, “the moveable truss is supported by vertical lifting frames at either end. When the bridge is ‘down’ the lifting frames retract into the pits” located behind the bridge abutments. “The bridge is raised by cables that run from fixed anchor points at the top of the pits, down around sheaves at the bottom of the lifting frame, back up to sheaves at the top of the pit, and down to cast concrete counterweights. When the counterweights sink into the pits…the cables pull the lifting frames upward by the sheaves at their lower corners.” Each bridge has a control tower, with the motors and gearing generally located in the pit nearest to the tower.Duncan Hay, “New York State Barge Canal,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, 2014, Section 7, Pages 21-22. [HAER-data, p2]
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| Mar 2022 Photo by Josh Schmid, License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike (CC BY-SA) |
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