BRIDGES AND
TUNNELS OF
ALLEGHENY COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA
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Article Index
HAER
Smithfield Street Bridge, Pittsburgh, PA
01 Cover Page
02 Foreword
03 Ferries
05 Monongahela
Bridge and
Fire
12 Masonry
17 Removal
of Old and
Erection of
New Bridge
18 Flooring
19 Ornamental
Towers and
Painting
22 Alterations
23 Footnotes
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Smithfield Street Bridge, Pittsburgh, PA Historic American Engineering Record PA-2 page 3
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Ferries From the foundation of the first settlement at Pittsburgh until 1818, the only means of communication between and the further banks of the rivers was by canoe or skiff. As settlement developed a ferry service became mandatory, and in 1818 Jones' Ferry operated between the mouth of Liberty Street in Pittsburgh and the south bank of the Monongahela. Passengers were carried in skiffs while stock was taken on flat boats. About 1840 a horse ferry was introduced. Blind horses, as a rule, were made to tramp upon a horizontal wheel, the revolution of which propelled the boat across the stream. A few years later Captain Erwin established a steam ferry from a site on the south bank of the Monongahela slightly below the confluence of the rivers at the Point, but this was never a success. (1) Subsequently the Jones' Ferry was abandoned, and a steam ferry operated from Saw Mill Run on the south bank of the Ohio to Penn Street in Pittsburgh. This line was in use until the increasing number of river bridges made it redundant. (2) Prior to the building of the Monongahela Bridge, all traffic passing from side of the river to the other at Smithfield was carried on a little ferry boat owned by Enoch Wright of Westmoreland County and Andrew Herd of Allegheny County, who leased the buildings, ferry, and improvements to one Robert Shanhan. Where the ferry landed on the South Side stood Enoch Wright's stone house. After the bridge was constructed the ferry rights were bought out by the Stock Company. (3) Before the introduction of dams toward the end of the nineteenth century, the streams at slack water were relatively shallow and numerous islands and sand bars were in evidence. There was, for instance, a long sand bar in the Monongahela River at the site of the Smithfield Street Bridge. (4) This river flat land that is shown on the very early maps of Pittsburgh, was of sufficient extent that grain could be grown on it at low water. It must be remembered also that there was extensive traffic on all three rivers and the spans of bridges had to be sufficiently high to allow boats to pass beneath them.
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Introduction Last modified on
30-Sep-99
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