The Jerome Street Bridge is an

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...

across the

Youghiogheny River The Youghiogheny River ( ), or the Yough ( ) for short, is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 tributary of the Monongahela River in West Virginia, Maryla ...

connecting the east and west banks of the

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

industrial suburb An industrial suburb is a community, near a large city, with an industrial economy. These communities may be established as tax havens or as places where zoning promotes industry, or they may be industrial towns that become suburbs by urban ...

McKeesport, Pennsylvania McKeesport is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. A suburb of Pittsburgh, it is situated at the confluence of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny rivers. The population was 17,727 as of the 2020 census. History Early history ...

. The bridge is a rare steel crescent arch bridge. A crescent arch is formed when the intrados and extrados (the ribs) of the

arch An arch is a curved vertical structure spanning an open space underneath it. Arches may support the load above them, or they may perform a purely decorative role. As a decorative element, the arch dates back to the 4th millennium BC, but stru ...

are not parallel, but instead form two different curves beginning and ending together. The ribs form a truss at the top of the arch and join together in a solid rib at each end. A crescent arch is a two-hinged arch, the ribs are further apart where the

bending moment In solid mechanics, a bending moment is the Reaction (physics), reaction induced in a structural element when an external force or Moment of force, moment is applied to the element, causing the element to bending, bend. The most common or simplest ...

is greatest and close together at each hinge where it is minimized.

History and architectural features

This bridge was engineered by George S. Richardson. A

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

-era public works bond was provided to fund the creation of a new auto-centric four-lane highway bridge. The bridge was dedicated on May 3, 1938 and opened to traffic on May 4. Thousands of people attended the ceremony and parade to celebrate the new bridge. The total cost of the new bridge was $667,000. McKeesport Bridges postcard 1915

Originally, the Fifth Avenue Bridge stood on the site. This 1880's truss structure mainly served streetcar traffic and was inadequate for automobiles. It was intended that after the Jerome Street Bridge opened that the older, downstream Third Avenue Bridge (1884) would also be demolished. This suspension bridge structure was also unsafe for continued automobile use. A petition signed by 5,000 people made the Allegheny County commissioners reconsider the plan. The Third Avenue Bridge was kept open for pedestrians only, but was eventually demolished in 1960. After the city renamed Jerome Street which approached the bridge after incumbent Republican Mayor George Lysle, they proposed that the Youghiogheny crossing receive the same

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

. However, the

Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

administration contended that public works dollars could not be used to memorialize living officeholders. As a result, the Jerome Street designation was chosen, and it remains in place today, although it is sometimes referred to as the Lysle Boulevard Bridge.

Rehabilitation projects

A 2022 project replaced the

bridge deck A deck is the surface of a bridge. A structural element of its superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildin ...

using polyester polymer concrete, repaired the concrete

substructure Substructure may refer to: * Substructure (engineering) * Substructure (mathematics) In mathematical logic, an (induced) substructure or (induced) subalgebra is a structure whose domain is a subset of that of a bigger structure, and whose funct ...

, and replaced the

bridge bearing In structural engineering, a bridge bearing is a component of a bridge which typically provides a resting surface between bridge piers and the bridge deck. The purpose of a Bearing (mechanical), bearing is to allow controlled movement and thereby ...

s. The work was completed in November 2022.

Notes

References

External links

PGH BridgesNat'l Bridge
{{NRHP bridges Through arch bridges in the United States Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Bridges in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Bridges completed in 1937 Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Historic Landmarks McKeesport, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Bridges over the Youghiogheny River Metal bridges in the United States Tied arch bridges in the United States