BRIDGES AND
TUNNELS OF
ALLEGHENY COUNTY,
PENNSYLVANIA
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HAER
Pittsburgh Bridges at the Point
01 Cover Page
02 Foreword
03 Chronology
04 Jones' Ferry
07 Union Bridge
1875
08 Point Bridge
1877
09 Point Bridge
1927
12 Fort Pitt and
Fort Duquesne
Bridges
14 Footnotes
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Pittsburgh Bridges at the Point Historic American Engineering Record PA-3, PA-4, PA-5 page 4
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Jones' Ferry From the foundation of the first settlement at Pittsburgh until 1818 the only means of communication between the town and the further banks of the rivers was by canoe or skiff. As the settlement developed, some kind of ferry service became mandatory and in 1813 Jones' Ferry operated between the mouth of Liberty Street in Pittsburgh to the south bank of the Monongahela. Passengers were carried in skiffs while stock was taken over on flat boats. About 1840 the horse ferry was introduced in which blind horses, as a rule, were used as motive power -- they were made to tramp upon a horizontal wheel, the revolutions of which propelled the boat across the stream. A few years later Captain Erwin established a steam ferry from a point below the Point Bridge site on the south bank, but this was never a success. Subsequently the Jones' Ferry was abandoned and a steam ferry operated from Saw Mill Run on the south bank of Ohio to Penn Street in Pittsburgh. (1) This line was in use until the first Point Bridge was opened in 1877. (2)
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Introduction Last modified on
17-Sep-99
Engraving from the Collections of the Pennsylvania Department,
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