Kinzua Bridge - Construction

Construction

In 1882, Thomas L. Kane, president of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway (NYLE&W), was faced with the challenge of building a branch line off the main line in Pennsylvania, from Bradford south to the coal fields in Elk County. The fastest way to do so was to build a bridge to cross the Kinzua Valley. The only other alternative to building a bridge would have been to lay an additional 8 miles (13 km) of track over rough terrain. When built, the bridge was larger than any that had been attempted, and over twice as large as the largest similar structure: the Portage Bridge over the Genesee River in upstate New York.

The first Kinzua Bridge was built by a crew of 40 from 1,552 short tons (1,408 t) of wrought iron in just 94 working days, between May 10 and August 29, 1882. The reason for the short construction time was that scaffolding was not used in the bridge's construction; instead a gin pole was used to build the first tower, then a traveling crane was built atop it and used in building the second tower. The process was then repeated across all 20 towers.

The bridge was designed by the engineer Octave Chanute and was built by the Phoenix Iron Works, which specialized in producing patented, hollow iron tubes called "Phoenix columns". Because of the design of these columns, it was often mistakenly believed that the bridge had been built out of wooden poles. The bridge's 110 sandstone masonry piers were quarried from the hillside used for the foundation of the bridge. The tallest tower had a base that was 193 feet (59 m) wide. The bridge was designed to support a load of 266 short tons (241 t), and cost anywhere from US$167,000 to US$275,000.

On completion, the bridge was the tallest and longest railroad bridge in the world and was advertised as the "Eighth Wonder of the World". Six of the bridge's 20 towers were taller than the Brooklyn Bridge. Excursion trains from as far away as Buffalo, New York, and Pittsburgh would come just to cross the Kinzua Bridge, which held the height record until the Garabit Viaduct, 401 feet (122 m) tall, was completed in France in 1884. Trains crossing the bridge were restricted to a speed of 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) because the locomotive, and sometimes the wind, caused the bridge to vibrate. People sometimes visited the bridge in hopes of finding the loot of a bank robber, who supposedly hid $40,000 in gold and currency under or near it.