Ohio Street Bridge

Ohio Street Bridge. . With a long history of adversity with storms, ice jams, and collisions, the Ohio Street Bridge is located at a critical point for both shipping and land traffic. , At one time, Ohio Street was a critical north-south industrial artery for land traffic. The Ohio Street Bridge linked the downtown business district to the foundries, grain elevators, flour and steel mills, rail yards, and docks of Buffalo's harbor. The first bridge was a stationary toll bridge operated by The Buffalo and Hamburg Turnpike Co. built in the late 1820's or early 30's. The Common Council tried for years to get the private company to build a moveable span. , In 1870 however, the covered toll bridge was destroyed by an August storm. The bridge was replaced in 1871 with a new swing bridge, which was destroyed two years later by a lake-going vessel. After the accident, two temporary pontoon bridges constructed of canal boats with wooden planks for a roadway were built, but they were destroyed by ice jams in the river. So a steam ferry was used, consisting of a tug with a flat-boat. The ferry carried between 400 and 800 teams a day across the Buffalo River until another swing bridge was completed in March of 1874. , The Ohio Street Bridge is located at a point where the River takes a sharp bend, making navigation difficult for lake freighters. The swing bridges swiveled from a pivot point on a pier on the middle of the river. When a ship went by, the bridge was turned so that it was parallel to shore. But this style bridge reduced the navigable width of the channel significantly, so in 1908, a single leaf bascule bridge was built. A bridge of this type pivots on one shore utilizing counterweights, raising and lowering the span to the other shore or pier in the river. It was the largest of it's type in the U.S. at the time. The bridge deck was 166 ft. long weighing 500 tons and could be raised or lowered on the north bank in less than two minutes. , Shown here is the Ohio Street Bridge looking northeast. Background image adapted from Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, HAER, 15 BUF, 44-37. , The bascule bridge still limited navigational space. Land traffic was affected, too. In 1929 for example, the bridge was raised 10,929 times with over 1344 hours of traffic delays. Traffic came to a total standstill while ships made their way slowly around this tortuous bend. Various solutions were offered, including one plan to construct a highlevel fixed bridge under which ships could travel unimpeded. Planners also proposed a canal to bypass the bend, but the expense and the problems posed by moving the river away from existing waterfront facilities caused planners to leave the bend intact. , Construction of a new bridge was delayed until after the Skyway and the Niagara Secton of the Thruway were completed in the late 1950s. The present bridge, a vertical lift bridge, opened in 1962. The entire span of the bridge is rafted by means of counter-weights (each weighing 400 tons) located in the 135-foot-tower on each side. The center span of the bridge is 350 feet long and weighs 700 tons. The bridge is operated by the City of Buffalo and, until recently, was staffed 24 hours a day. The bridge tender controls the bridge from the house-like structure on the south end of the bridge.