Cincinnati Southern Bridge
Video
Flight Over the Cincinnati Southern Railroad Bridge (AKA Ludlow Bridge). Some wind gusts. Geoff McKim |
Facts
- Overview
- Through truss bridge over Ohio River on Norfolk Southern Railroad in Cincinnati
- Location
- Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, and Kenton County, Kentucky
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1922 using the existing piers from a 1877 bridge
- Builders
- - American Bridge Co. of New York (Superstructure)
- Foundation Co. of New York (Substructure Enlargement)
- Ralph Modjeski of Bochnia, Poland
- Railroads
- - Cincinnati, New Orleans, & Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP; CNTP)
- Norfolk Southern Railway (NS)
- Design
- Continuous Baltimore through truss
Vertical lift through truss span (lifting machinery removed)
Warren deck truss span
Lengthy deck girder approach on the north side - Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 520.0 ft.
Total length: 3,230.0 ft. (0.6 mi.)
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +39.09833, -84.54194 (decimal degrees)
39°05'54" N, 84°32'31" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/712565/4330565 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Covington
- Inventory number
- BH 43291 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Update Log
- April 12, 2020: Updated by Tony Dillon: Fixed typo in name
- April 12, 2020: Updated by Nick Boppel: Fix name
- November 11, 2017: New video from Geoff McKim
- April 10, 2017: Updated by Christopher Finigan: Added categories "Pin-connected", "Riveted"
- March 26, 2016: New photos from Geoff McKim
- December 10, 2015: New Street View added by Douglas Butler
- October 15, 2013: New photo from Douglas Butler
- April 11, 2013: Updated by Alexander D. Mitchell IV: Added category "Norfolk Southern Railway"
- January 23, 2013: Updated by Nathan Holth: Added vertical lift info, engineer, contractor, etc.
- October 7, 2012: Updated by Luke Harden: Added categories "Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific Railway", "Railroad"
- October 7, 2012: Updated by Jann Mayer: Added approach details and span length
- November 2, 2010: New photo from Bill Eichelberger
- August 26, 2009: Updated by Bill Eichelberger: Added GPS coordinates.
Sources
- Bill Eichelberger
- Cincinnati-Transit.net - Southern Railroad Bridge
- bridgestunnels.com - Cincinnati Southern Bridge
- Jann Mayer - jannmayer [at] gmail [dot] com
- Nathan Holth
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
- Alexander D. Mitchell IV
- Douglas Butler
- Geoff McKim
- Tony Dillon - spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com
- Nick Boppel - nickboppel01 [at] gmail [dot] com
Comments
I think I see where the $20,000,000 figure came from. $20M in bonds were sold for the construction of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, but that was for the construction of the 350 mile rail line.
From bridgesandtunnels.com "Construction was completed by the Keystone Bridge Company of Pittsburg for $750,000 and was regarded as one of the cheapest spans of bridge-building in the West. It was the longest truss span in the world. The span was the seventh bridge built over the Ohio, and the third at that point."
I would like to see the figures on how they arrived at $20,000,000 cost. That sounds way too high for 1922 and imposable for the earlier date. I would guess the 1922 price at about 1/4 that.
I believe this bridge was actually built in 1922. The substructure may date to 1877, but the superstructure is far newer than that. Wikipedia claims the bridge was "extensively modified" in 1922 which I believe means replaced. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Southern_Bridge
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/oh/hamilton/bh43291/
I've added a separate entry for the original 1877 bridge:
http://bridgehunter.com/oh/hamilton/bh44720/