Longfellow Bridge
Longfellow Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°21′42″N 71°04′31″W / 42.361635°N 71.07541°W |
Carries | Route 3, MBTA Red Line |
Crosses | Charles River |
Locale | Boston, Massachusetts to Cambridge, Massachusetts |
Maintained by | Massachusetts Department of Transportation |
Characteristics | |
Design | Steel rib arch bridge |
Total length | 1,767.5 feet (538.7 m)[1] |
Width | 105 feet (32 m)[1] |
Longest span | 188.5 feet (57.5 m)[1] |
History | |
Construction start | July 1900[1] |
Opened | August 3, 1906 |
Rebuilt | 2013–2018 |
Statistics | |
Daily traffic | 28,600 cars and 90,000 mass-transit passengers |
Location | |
The Longfellow Bridge is a steel rib
The bridge falls under the jurisdiction and oversight of the
Design
Longfellow Bridge is a combination railway and highway bridge. It is 105 feet (32 m) wide, 1,767 feet 6 inches (538.73 m) long between abutments, and nearly one-half mile in length, including abutments and approaches. It consists of eleven steel arch spans supported on ten masonry piers and two massive abutments. The arches vary in length from 101 feet 6 inches (30.94 m) at the abutments to 188 feet 6 inches (57.45 m) at the center, and in rise from 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m) to 26 feet 6 inches (8.08 m). Headroom under the central arch is 26 feet (7.9 m) at mean high water.
The two large central piers, 188 feet (57 m) long and 53 feet 6 inches (16.31 m) wide,
The Longfellow Bridge provides a panoramic view of the Boston skyline. In commenting on riding the Red Line over the bridge, the
History
The first river crossing at this site was a
In 1898, the Cambridge Bridge Commission was created to construct "a new bridge across Charles River, to be known as Cambridge Bridge, at, upon, or near the site of the so-called West Boston Bridge... suitable for all the purposes of ordinary travel between said cities, and for the use of the elevated and surface cars of the
Although both state and national regulations at the time required a
The Cambridge Bridge was renamed Longfellow Bridge in 1927,[15][16] by the Massachusetts General Court to honor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who had written about the predecessor West Boston Bridge in his 1845 poem "The Bridge".[17]
There are pedestrian stairs on both sides of the bridge at both ends adorned with stone towers. Originally, these led to the Charles River shoreline, and on the Cambridge side they still do. On the Boston side, the construction of Storrow Drive in 1950-51 moved the shoreline, so that the stairs now lead to isolated parcels of land cut off from the river by Storrow Drive. There is no way to exit the upstream parcel, due to an off-ramp; the downstream one includes a crosswalk past another off-ramp. To reach the Charles River Esplanade, pedestrians must now proceed along the sidewalk to the end of the bridge, and use the Frances Appleton Bridge, a wheelchair-accessible pedestrian bridge, at Charles Circle slightly south of the Longfellow Bridge.
The new bridge was built with streetcar tracks plus an initially unused center reservation. On March 23, 1912, the
Neglect
The Longfellow Bridge, like many bridges in the Commonwealth,[22] deteriorated into a state of disrepair. Between 1907 and 2011, the only major maintenance conducted on the bridge had been a small 1959 rehabilitation project and some lesser repairs done in 2002.[23] In mid-2008, two state employees stole 2,347 feet (715 m) of decorative iron trim that had been removed from the bridge for refurbishment, and sold it for scrap. The men, one of whom was a Department of Conservation and Recreation district manager, were charged with receiving $12,147 for the historic original parapet coping. The estimated cost to remake the pieces, scheduled for replication by 2012, was over $500,000.[24] The men were later convicted in September 2009.[25]
In mid-2008, the western sidewalk and inner traffic lane were both closed, the Red Line subway was limited to 10 miles per hour (16 km/h), and Fourth-of-July fireworks-watchers were banned from the bridge because of concerns that the bridge might collapse under the weight and vibration of heavy use.[7] The speed restriction was lifted in August 2008, and the lane and sidewalk were reopened later on. On August 4, 2008, Governor Deval Patrick signed into law a $3 billion Massachusetts bridge repair funding package he had sponsored.[26] The funds raised from the sale of bonds were used to pay for the rehabilitation of the Longfellow Bridge, the preliminary cost estimated at $267.5 million.[27] If bridge maintenance had instead been performed regularly, the total estimated historical cost would have been about $81 million.[28] Design began in Spring 2005; construction was expected to begin in Spring 2012 and end in Spring 2016.[27]
Ownership and management of the overhaul was transferred from the
The condition of the bridge was determined to be so bad that the state could not wait for development of a full restoration plan. A $17 million contract was signed with SPS New England Inc for interim repairs.
Major reconstruction project
A $255 million project started construction in the summer of 2013 to replace structural elements of the bridge, and restore its historic character.[32] The project was expected to require at least 25 weekend shutdowns of MBTA Red Line subway service to accommodate construction, including multiple temporary relocations of the rapid transit tracks.[33] Outbound road traffic (from Boston to Cambridge) was to be detoured from the bridge for all three years of expected construction. A single lane of inbound traffic was expected to be available for the duration of the project, potentially restricted to buses-only at certain hours. A computer animation movie released by MassDOT showed the complex six-stage rehabilitation process in great detail, including temporary installation of a "shoo-fly track" (bypass track) to allow the permanent railbed at the midline of the span to be rebuilt.[34]
The design/build phase of the bridge was assigned to the joint venture team of contractors White-Skanska-Conslgli under supervision by MassDOT.
The Longfellow Bridge is considered to be the most important historic bridge in the City of Boston due to its prominent location over the Charles River and outstanding visual and architectural quality. The primary aim of the rehabilitation project was to address the bridge's structural deficiencies, upgrade its capacity and bring it up to date with modern codes while also preserving its visual and historic architectural character. A significant portion of the restoration work lay with dismantling, cleaning, restoring, and re-erecting the 58-foot-tall towers that frame the river's navigation channel, which had settled over time.[37]
The Longfellow Bridge Restoration and Rehabilitation project was scheduled for completion in 2016, but the completion date was extended to December 2018, due in part to historic restoration requiring obsolete construction techniques such as
See also
References
- ^ )
- ^ Angelo, William J. (June 6, 2007). "Salt and Pepper Bridge Slated For Major Rehab in Boston". Engineering News-Record. The McGraw-Hill Companies. Archived from the original on June 3, 2013. Retrieved December 11, 2011.
- ^ A Record of the Streets, Alleys, Places, Etc. in the City of Boston. City of Boston Printing Department. 1910. p. 493. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
- ^ "Bridge Rehabilitation, Cambridge Street over the Charles River". Mhd.state.ma.us. Archived from the original on 2011-04-10. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- Boston, Massachusetts: MassDOT (Commonwealth of Massachusetts). 2010. Archived from the originalon 2010-08-04. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
The bridge presently carries 28,000 motor vehicles, 90,000 transit users, and significant numbers of pedestrians and bicyclists each day.
- Boston Globe. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
- ^ a b With bridges shaky, what if Boston lost its link to Cambridge? Boston Globe, 3 Aug 2008. Archived May 31, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877 by Lucius Robinson Paige. p. 176 and thereafter
- ^ History of Cambridge, p. 201-202
- ^ "Miscellaneous Items". New England Farmer. March 29, 1856. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "On The Electric Cars". Boston Globe. February 6, 1889. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com.
- ISBN 0938315048.
- ^ "NEW BRIDGE OPENED". Argus Leader. Sioux Falls, South Dakota. August 23, 1906. p. 4. Retrieved April 24, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "10,000 MARCH IN BOSTON". Chicago Tribune. August 1, 1907. p. 4. Retrieved April 24, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
- ISBN 978-0-262-08307-2. Retrieved 2011-01-25.
- ^ "The Longfellow Bridge". Detroit Free Press. February 11, 1927. p. 6. Retrieved April 24, 2018 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. "The Bridge". Retrieved April 24, 2018 – via poetryfoundation.org.
- ^ Moore, Lewis E. (February 1, 1912). "The Cambridge Subway". Engineering News. Vol. 67, no. 5. pp. 187–195 – via Hathi Trust.
- ^ "Day and Night Cars Changes on Monday". Boston Globe. December 10, 1925. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "New "L" Station at Charles St to Open for Service Saturday". Boston Globe. February 24, 1932. p. 15 – via Newspapers.com.
- ISBN 0938315056.
- ^ "Report: Mass. Road And Bridge Repair Is Poor". wbztv.com. Associated Press. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2008-09-02. [dead link]
- ^ Westerling, David & Steve Poftak, A Legacy of Neglect, Boston Globe Op Ed., A11 (Jul 31, 2007).
- ^ Ebbert, Stephanie (2008-09-12). "Case of the purloined ironwork". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
- Boston, Massachusetts: New York Times. Retrieved 2009-11-14.
- ^ Viser, Matt (2008-08-05). "Patrick signs $3b bill to fix bridges". boston.com. Retrieved 2008-09-11.
- ^ a b "Accelerated Bridge Program (ABP) Plan - By Locality" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
- ^ Ross, Casey, Longfellow's long list of woes Archived June 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Boston Herald Special Report, (Jan 11, 2008).
- ^ "90 Day Integration Report - September 2009" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-23. Retrieved 2012-08-20.
- ^ "Longfellow Bridge". Massdot.state.ma.us. Archived from the original on 2010-10-17. Retrieved 2011-08-31.
- ^ Brown, Sara (April 12, 2011). "Beacon Hill gets a Longfellow Bridge update". The Boston Globe.
- ^ a b MassDOT. "Longfellow Bridge". Accelerated Bridge Program. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ^ a b Powers, Martine (February 28, 2013). "Longfellow Bridge repairs, disruption to start in summer". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ^ MassDOT. "Longfellow Bridge Construction Animation". youmovemass. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
- ^ MassDOT. "MASSDOT BOARD APPROVES CONTRACTS FOR REHABILITATION OF LONGFELLOW AND WHITTIER BRIDGES". Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ^ a b Dungca, Nicole (July 29, 2015). "Longfellow Bridge construction extended until late 2018". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2016-01-22.
- ^ Jacques, Kiley (17 March 2020). "The Reconstruction of Longfellow Bridge". Traditional Building. Retrieved 2021-05-17.
- ^ Dungca, Nichole (August 31, 2016). "Rebuilt Longfellow Bridge may reopen by June 2018". Boston Globe. Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
- ^ Frias, Lauren (May 31, 2018). "5 photos of the Longfellow Bridge, which has reopened after years of construction". Boston.com. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
- ^ Vaccaro, Adam (2018-05-31). "After years of reconstruction, Longfellow Bridge reopened 5 a.m. Thursday". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2018-06-01.
- ^ Adam Vaccaro (17 September 2018). "Final cost of Longfellow Bridge project a tad overbudget". The Boston Globe.
Further reading
- Jackson, William (1909). Report of the Cambridge bridge commission and report of the chief engineer upon the construction of Cambridge bridge. Printing department. )
- Freeman, Dale H. (2000). "A changing bridge for changing times : the history of the West Boston Bridge, 1793-1907 ; a thesis". Graduate Masters Theses. ASIN B0006RH37A.
- Seitinger, Susanne (2002). "Lookin' Good, Feelin' Good: the transformation of Charles Circle" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-09-12.
- Moskowitz, Eric (July 25, 2010). "Linking cities and eras". The Boston Globe. pp. 1–4. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
- Warren, Chris (October 8, 2019). "First Class: The Winners of the 2019 Richard H. Driehaus Foundation National Preservation Awards". National Trust for Historic Preservation.
- Murphy, Dan (October 17, 2019). "Longfellow Bridge Receives 'Most Important Historic Preservation Award' in U.S." Beacon Hill Times. p. 1.
External links
- Longfellow Bridge at Structurae
- "The Bridge", poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MA-47, "Longfellow Bridge, Spanning Charles River at Main Street, Boston, Suffolk County, MA", 4 photos, 2 data pages, 1 photo caption page
Closures
- Daniel, Mac (January 22, 2006). "Longfellow Bridge lane to close". The Boston Globe.
- "Defects lead to closure of a Longfellow Bridge sidewalk". The Boston Globe. June 6, 2008. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008.
- Ebbert, Stephanie (June 7, 2008). "Longfellow Bridge is off-limits July 4th". The Boston Globe.
- Ebbert, Stephanie (June 26, 2008). "Two lanes closed on Longfellow Bridge". The Boston Globe.