Crown Point Bridge
Video
Lake Champlain Bridge, Crown Point, NY Demolition The 80 year old Champlain Bridge in Crown Point, NY was demolished by Idaho based Advanced Explosives Demolition. Opened to the public on Aug. 26, 1929 the bridge served as a major connection between New York and Vermont. Plans are already underway for the replacement bridge to be opened in the summer of 2011. Video link posted by Ed Hollowell |
Facts
- Overview
- Lost through and deck truss bridge over Lake Champlain on NY 185/VT 17
- Location
- Essex County, New York, and Addison County, Vermont
- Status
- No longer exists
- History
- Built 1929 by American Bridge Co.; rehabilitated 1991; closed to traffic Oct. 16, 2009, demolished Dec. 28, 2009
- Builders
- - American Bridge Co. of New York (Superstructure)
- Fay, Spofford & Thorndike of Burlington, Massachusetts (Consulting engineers)
- Design
- Cantilevered Warren through & deck Truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 433.7 ft.
Total length: 2,191.1 ft. (0.4 mi.)
Deck width: 25.9 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 14.0 ft.
- Also called
- Champlain Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +44.03256, -73.42350 (decimal degrees)
44°01'57" N, 73°25'25" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 18/626326/4876697 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Port Henry
- Inventory numbers
- NY 5521180 (New York State bridge identification number)
BH 26043 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 12/2007)
- Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 29.2 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2008)
- 3,148
Update Log
- February 28, 2015: Photo imported by Dave King
- September 19, 2010: New photos from Doug Kerr
- September 1, 2010: New video from Ed Hollowell
- April 13, 2010: New Street View added by Nathan Holth
- December 28, 2009: Updated by James Norwood: Added Demolition info
- November 10, 2009: Bridge is to be demolished and replaced
Related Bridges
- Lake Champlain Bridge (Successor)
Sources
- Wikipedia
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
- James Norwood
- Nathan Holth
- Ed Hollowell - erhollowell [at] aol [dot] com
- Doug Kerr
Comments
Although I have been in Kansas City MO for 20 years, I still keep an eye on Vermont. It is too bad this bridge could not be saved. Visually it reminded me of the Chouteau Bridge here in KC that spanned the Missouri River which was demolished in 2001. Hopefully, the replacement bridge will fit in with this area's scenic beauty.
I find it hard to believe a modern bridge would be anywhere near as scenic as the historic bridge, given the intricate geometric art created by the detail in a historic truss bridge. While the overall shape of the new bridge may seem appealing at first, it will look very plain up close.
Also, the modern bridge will not blend in with the historic sites surrounding it as well as the historic bridge did.
This is a loss, not a gain for the area. I am greatly saddened that as of this posting, it appears that none of the pontists out there (myself included) made it to this remote bridge in time.
I usually try to refrain from heavily advertising my own website on this website, but anyone looking for info and photos on this bridge may be interested to see my page, which includes photos (from NYSDOT and various sources), my discussion for the bridge, and the big feature: original plans for the historic bridge, courtesy of NYSDOT:
http://www.historicbridges.org/newyork/lakechamplain/index.p...
With this bridge dynamited, I hope the new structure, a network tied arch design, looks as scenic. I pray it is well taken care of. The new bridge proposed, as I seen in recent online pictures, to me looks as scenic, if not better. I am pleased that Lake Champlain area people did NOT choose the UCEB designs.
This bridge cannot be repaired, will have to be demolished.
http://www.pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_31323162...
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ny/essex/crown-point/
This bridge was used in the Harrison Ford/Michelle Pfeiffer film "What Lies Beneath". Usually when you see a bridge in a movie it's a through truss of some type, so what will they do when all of the truss bridges are gone? I guess they'll all be cgi, what a shame.