08-06-2010, 08:17 PM
Well, it's not like there will be any ships going under this bridge! I'm not even sure how navigable the Lehigh River is up this far for anything larger than small pleasure boats, and I'm modeling the mid-Thirties, in a real "working class" area, so I'm not sure how much of that kind of traffic there would actually be.
See the Google satellite map of the Lehighton - Weissport area for some idea of the area.
I had basically decided to use the rolling lift bridge because of its appearance. Many of the railroad bridges in the area, as I recall (calling on twenty-plus year old memories,) are plate girder bridges on stone masonry abutments and piers, high enough to allow small boats to pass without obstruction. Again, I just thought the rolling lift bridge's structure was cool and that most people wouldn't know whether it was engineering-wise the right choice or not.
In reality, the "original" spans in this area would have been wood, and eventually replaced with steel, at least that's my best guess. Bridges are one of the few elements of the area that I have not studied all that much about. I do know that the much-photographed L&NE "High Line" bridge over the Delaware River at the Delaware Water Gap is a plate girder on Steel bents on masonry piers, but the Delaware River is easily two or three times as wide and the railroad three or four times as high due to the mountains on either side of the river.
Up here on the Lehigh River, the banks are nowhere near as high and we're crossing from one small upstate town to another.
I haven't a clue!
See the Google satellite map of the Lehighton - Weissport area for some idea of the area.
I had basically decided to use the rolling lift bridge because of its appearance. Many of the railroad bridges in the area, as I recall (calling on twenty-plus year old memories,) are plate girder bridges on stone masonry abutments and piers, high enough to allow small boats to pass without obstruction. Again, I just thought the rolling lift bridge's structure was cool and that most people wouldn't know whether it was engineering-wise the right choice or not.
In reality, the "original" spans in this area would have been wood, and eventually replaced with steel, at least that's my best guess. Bridges are one of the few elements of the area that I have not studied all that much about. I do know that the much-photographed L&NE "High Line" bridge over the Delaware River at the Delaware Water Gap is a plate girder on Steel bents on masonry piers, but the Delaware River is easily two or three times as wide and the railroad three or four times as high due to the mountains on either side of the river.
Up here on the Lehigh River, the banks are nowhere near as high and we're crossing from one small upstate town to another.
I haven't a clue!
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln