Center Street Bridge

The Center Street Bridge carries Center Street over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio.

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History

The Center Street Bridge carries Center Street over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio.

The original bridge at this location was a simple raft made of whitewood logs, tied together with ropes and floated to one side to allow boats to pass. ⁵ In 1863, it was replaced by a wooden drawbridge. However, within a decade, this bridge was deemed unsafe, and in 1871, an iron swing bridge was constructed. This bridge, featuring a “Post patent diagonal truss” design, was built by the McNairy & Claflin Manufacturing Company at a cost of $13,250.

By 1893, there were 20 swing bridges crossing the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, split evenly between highway and railroad bridges. ¹

On June 1, 1897, the Cleveland City Council passed an ordinance for the reconstruction of the Center Street Bridge, mandating a steel and iron superstructure. ⁵ The funding for this project was to come from the sale of bonds. The bridge’s design, completed between 1898 and 1899 under the supervision of James Ritchie, the city’s chief engineer, also involved James T. Pardee, as indicated on the drawings. Construction began in 1900, with the L. P. & J. A. Smith Company completing the masonry substructure in ten months. The King Bridge Company then constructed a rim-bearing “bobtail” swing, pin-connected Pratt through truss span in eight months. The bridge opened in September 1901, ^{1 5} costing $84,000 to build, with the total project cost, including land purchases and damages, reaching $107,281. ⁵

Z. King, who started manufacturing bridges in 1853 and received a patent for a swing bridge in 1864, led the King Bridge Company to become a major bridge and structural work manufacturer by the 1890s. ¹

The Center Street Bridge’s design featured a rim-bearing “bobtail” through truss swing, with “bobtail” indicating uneven lengths of the bridge’s arms from the pivot pier, and “rim-bearing” meaning the bridge’s dead load was supported by a circular girder near the pivot pier’s periphery. ⁵ Located on the river’s west bank, the bridge provided a full 112-foot-wide navigation channel. The bridge had a 245-foot-long Pratt through truss swing span, a 62-foot girder span, totaling 307 feet in length, a 23.8-inch-wide roadway, and two six-foot sidewalks.

The superstructure was painted with National Paint Works Red Lead paint No. 300 mixed with 10% Lamp Black, and given a final coat of Red Lead mixed with 25% Lamp Black. ⁵ The roadway floor consisted of White Oak timbers cut into four-inch wood blocks with stone block paving on the approach span. Originally powered by steam, the bridge was later upgraded to two 35-horsepower electric motors. ¹

In 1914, the Center Street Bridge received a fresh coat of paint and a new roadway deck. ⁵ Later, from 1946 to 1947, the bridge underwent significant rehabilitation. During this period, the deck and stringers of the bridge were replaced, along with the tension members up to the turnbuckles. Additionally, a new turning assembly, manufactured by the Allis-Chalmers Company, was installed, and the bridge’s operator’s house was also replaced.

By the 1970s, the Center Street Bridge had become the oldest operational movable bridge over the navigable part of the river. ¹

In 1989, the bridge was extensively renovated, followed by minor repairs in 2010 to the driving surface and sidewalk. ⁴

On January 3, 2022, it was closed for a $5.4 million rehabilitation project by the Ohio Department of Transportation, focusing on replacing the driving surface and sidewalk, structural steel repairs, repainting, and adding new sidewalk lights. ^{3 4} The bridge’s unbalanced design required careful counterbalancing during the renovation.

The bridge finally reopened to traffic on October 9, 2023. ²

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Gallery

Historic American Engineering Record

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Details

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Sources

1. Bluestone, Daniel M., ed. “Center Street Bridge.” Cleveland: An Inventory of Historic Engineering and Industrial Sites, Historic American Engineering Record, 1978, pp. 85.
2. Oprea, Mark. “Rejoice: The Center Street Swing Bridge Has Finally Reopened.” Cleveland Scene, 10 Oct. 2023.
3. McDonnell, Sean. “Cleveland’s Center Street Bridge slated to reopen in early October after 21 months of construction.” Cleveland.com, 29 Sept. 2023.
4. McDonnell, Sean. “Cleveland’s Center Street Bridge in the Flats to close for 10 months.” Cleveland.com, 17 Dec. 2021.
5. Miller, Carol Poh. “Center Street Bridge.” Historic American Engineering Record, Sept. 1978.