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Forest Avenue Bridge

Dallas County, Texas

Photos 

1934 view facing northwest

Photo credit Dallas Public Library

Enlarge

BH Photo #306668

Map 

Description 

This swing bridge was one of 4 similar structures constructed between 1912 and 1915 on the Trinity River in southern Dallas County. At that time navigation improvements from Dallas to the Gulf of Mexico were an ongoing project which included a series of locks and dams which were later abandoned.

This bridge was located in a broad valley necessitating long steep timber approaches and several other smaller timber bridges and causeways. The approaches were skewed 45 degrees from the bridge axis resulting in numerous accidents which lead to its early replacement.

Facts 

Overview
Lost Camelback through truss bridge over Trinity River on Forest Avenue Road
Location
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Status
Demolished
History
Constructed in 1915, Bypassed in 1952, Demolished in 1955
Design
Pivoting camelback through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 180.0 ft.
Total length: 400.0 ft.
Deck width: 20.0 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 14.0 ft.
Also called
Forest Avenue Swing Bridge
Forest Avenue Road Bridge
Approximate latitude, longitude
+32.75146, -96.78553   (decimal degrees)
32°45'05" N, 96°47'08" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
14/707466/3625904 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Dallas
Inventory number
BH 63894 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Beam (16,887)
Built 1915 (1,259)
Built during 1910s (9,971)
Camelback truss (414)
Dallas County, Texas (201)
Dallas, Texas (117)
Lost (28,514)
Lost 1955 (112)
Lost during 1950s (866)
 Movable (3,115)
Owned by city (6,083)
Span length 175-250 feet (2,057)
Swing (1,562)
Texas (2,903)
Through truss (16,803)
Timber stringer (4,321)
Total length 250-500 feet (5,511)
Truss (35,485)

Update Log 

  • February 17, 2022: New photo from Bambi Sharkoman
  • October 31, 2014: New photo from Douglas Butler
  • October 30, 2014: Added by M C Toyer

Sources 

  • M C Toyer - mctoyer [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • Douglas Butler
  • Jesse Sharkoman Berube - jesseberube5 [at] gmail [dot] com
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Comments 

Forest Avenue Bridge
Posted November 3, 2014, by Douglas Butler

I also have some other movable bridge drawings of Texas.

Forest Avenue Bridge
Posted November 3, 2014, by Douglas Butler

And yes I'm a artis I studied movable bridges as well inventors and drawn them since 2000.

Forest Avenue Bridge
Posted November 3, 2014, by Douglas Butler

Thanks but no I just do movable drawbridges which is my favorite however I sometimes do fixed bridge drawings but not in Oklahoma.

Forest Avenue Bridge
Posted October 31, 2014, by M C Toyer (mctoyer [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Douglas -

Neat sketch and a good way to preserve details clearly.

Are you the artist? Do you have others, particularly north Texas / southern Oklahoma?