The Falls Bridge is a steel

Pratt truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements, typically straight, may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

bridge that spans the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, w ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. It connects Kelly (formerly East River) Drive at Calumet Street with Martin Luther King, Jr. (formerly West River) Drive at Neill Drive. It replaced a wooden covered bridge at the same site. The bridge, with stonemasonry abutments and two stonemasonry piers, with three Pratt-type pin-connected trusses, was built in 1894–1895 at a cost of $262,000 by Filbert Porter & Co. under the direction of Chief Engineer George Smedley Webster (1855–1931) of the Philadelphia Department of Public Works and James H. Windrim, director of the Department of Public Works. The bridge was designed as a double-decker bridge, but the upper deck was never built for lack of funds. The bridge carries two lanes of vehicular traffic on a roadway, with sidewalks on either side, for a total width of . In 2007, blue

LED lights An LED lamp or LED light is an electric light that produces light using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LED lamps are significantly more energy-efficient than equivalent incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps. The most efficient commercial ...

were added to highlight the bridge at night. File:View of Proposed Falls Bridge 1894 (cropped).jpg, "View of Proposed Falls Bridge" (1894) File:Schuylkill river.jpeg, Note the Reading Railroad Bridge and the Falls (Covered) Bridge in this 1872 map. File:View from Laurel Hill cemetery, Phila, by Kilburn Brothers.jpg, "View from Laurel Hill Cemetery." Reading Railroad Bridge, with Falls (Covered) Bridge in the distance (circa 1880s). File:Philadelphia. (Bridge over the Schuylkill River), from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg, "Philadelphia. (Bridge over the Schuylkill River)", undated. This photograph may show the Falls (Covered) Bridge.

References

External links

*
Article
at "Workshop of the World"
Article
at "The Necessity of Ruins" *
Listing
at BridgeHunter.com {{Crossings navbox , structure = Crossings , place =

, bridge = Falls Bridge , bridge signs = , upstream = City Avenue Bridges , upstream signs = , downstream =

Twin Bridges Twin bridges are a set of two bridges running parallel to each other. A pair of twin bridges is often referred to collectively as a twin-span or dual-span bridge. Twin bridges are independent structures and each bridge has its own superstructur ...

, downstream signs = US 1

Bridges over the Schuylkill River Bridges completed in 1895 Bridges in Philadelphia Road bridges in Pennsylvania Historic American Engineering Record in Philadelphia Steel bridges in the United States Pratt truss bridges in the United States

See also

References

External links