The Summer Street Bridge is a
retractile bridge built in 1899 in
Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...
, over the
Fort Point Channel. It still stands, but has served as a fixed bridge since 1959.
[ This was the site of the Summer Street Bridge disaster in 1916.
]
History
The structure was built to replace a swing bridge dating to 1855.[ Construction contracts were awarded in October 1897, and the first draw was operational in August 1899.][ The bridge consists of two parallel decks, each wide, which when operational, had center sections that were retracted independently and diagonally to allow water traffic to pass.][
The bridge was the site of the Summer Street Bridge disaster on the night of November 7, 1916, in which 46 passengers were killed when a ]streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
fell into Fort Point Channel. The bridge remained in use, although its streetcar traffic was discontinued in the 1950s and the spans were fixed in place in 1959.[ Originally, the structure had a bridge tender's house, which was removed in 1965.][
When documented by the ]Historic American Engineering Record
Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...
in 1984, the Summer Street Bridge was one of only four retractile drawbridges left in the United States, two of which were on Summer Street in Boston.[ The other bridge on Summer Street, crossing Reserved Channel, was replaced in 2003.]
Gallery
See also
* List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Massachusetts
Notes
References
{{Crossings navbox
, structure = Crossings
, place = Fort Point Channel
, bridge = Summer Street Bridge
, bridge signs =
, upstream = Red Line tunnel
, upstream signs = {{rint, boston, red, icon
, downstream = Congress Street Bridge
, downstream signs =
Retractable bridges
Road bridges in Massachusetts
Railroad bridges in Massachusetts
Bridges in Boston
Bridges completed in 1899
1899 establishments in Massachusetts
Historic American Engineering Record in Massachusetts