Distinguish Jacksonville: The Bridges of Downtown
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Connecting the River City for travel and commerce, they create an urban-scape that is unique in the Southeast. They are the bridges of Downtown Jacksonville.
Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/479
GREAT JOB..If somewhere in your research you came close to finding an expense amount for maintianing these bridges it would be much appreciated by people trying to save the ferry
The ferry is expected to allow people to cross the river for free (no cost to the taxpayer that doesn't go that way) these bridges don't provide that either.
This is a cool article. Although not downtown, I think the Dames Point Bridge is worth mentioning.
QuoteThe Dames Point Bridge (also known as the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge or Dame Point Bridge) spans the St. Johns River northeast of downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Two miles long, and 175 feet above the main channel of the river, the Dames Point Bridge connects northern Jacksonville with the Arlington and Beaches area of east Jacksonville via Florida Highway 9A. Opened to traffic in 1989, it is a premier example of the beautiful simplicity of the cable-stayed bridge.
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Great article (except for the missed opportunity part about the old Fuller Warren bridge part). I have been across the Hart bridge a whole lot. It might need a fresh new coat of paint like the Dames Point bridge is getting! :D 8)
I love jacksonville's bridges, especially at night.....they do make this place unique. When I tell people I now live in Jacksonville they always say "oh ya, that place with all the bridges!".
Yeah it'd be nice if the city painted both the Hart and the Matthews Bridges. It was amazing the difference after the Main St. Bridge was painted for the Super Bowl.
Also, it would also be nice if they ever built the supposed Timucan Bridge (I believe that's the name) that would be between the Fuller Warren and the Buckman and connect University Blvd to Roosevelt Blvd. Imagine the convenience.
Um...woohoo for the bridges? Yeah, they're functional, but I wouldn't go so far as to call them an attraction.
Dames Point is post-card worthy, impressive design there.
They're not necessarily an attraction but they are most definitely a significant part of Jacksonville's identity. So yeah, woohoo for the bridges! :)
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Quote from: rjp2008 on November 19, 2008, 10:55:45 AM
Um...woohoo for the bridges? Yeah, they're functional, but I wouldn't go so far as to call them an attraction.
Dames Point is post-card worthy, impressive design there.
Ever since they repainted and added the neon light display to the Main St. Bridge I think it has made it a bit of an attraction.
There's nothing that says a bridge can't be both functional and an attraction. Notable examples are the Golden Gate and the Brooklyn.
Great shots Lunican. I just remember how during the Super Bowl the Main St. Bridge was a focal point of the whole event. Maybe one day it will be a pedestrian only bridge in a vibriant downtown. Only time will tell.
Just for fun, I thought you might like to see how we handled "Dames Point" in Colombia!
http://www.youtube.com/v/hrf0WExLiaI&hl=en&fs=1
This is in the Cauca Valley, near Cali... Okay, for you US school grads, that's center of the country, and off to the West side, one mountain range from the coast. Or in other words... It's not in FLORIDA!
This is REALLY FUN, but you know, 3rd world and all of that.... if you fall in the fish eat you, if the fish don't get you the croc's will, but if they miss the FARC or FALN guerrilla's will kidnap or shoot you, but if they don't get you you'll probably be robbed in the town square, however if that doesn't happen either, then one of the 50+ volcano's will pop and you'll be swept away in a lahar, or pyroclastic flow... LOL, Damn we North American's have all become spoiled little, chicken shit, cowards!!
The way I see it, he said
You just cant win it...
Everybodys in it for their own gain
You cant please em all
Theres always somebody calling you down
I do my best
And I do good business
Theres a lot of people asking for my time
Theyre trying to get ahead
Theyre trying to be a good friend of mine
I was a free man in pereira
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favors
And no ones future to decide
You know Id go back there tomorrow
But for the work Ive taken on
Stoking the streetcar maker machinery
Behind the popular throngs...
With apology's to Joni!
OCKLAWAHA
Went across Dames Point Bridge the other day - they've finished the paint job! And the Hart painting seems to be coming along - cool "covered bridge" effect at the Stadium end right now.
There will always be one of the bridges being painted and one needing paint.
City of Bridges, City of Bridges, Dames, Hart, Main Street, Fuller Warren, Matthews, the big 5.
Heights Unknown
That's a nice shot of the Old Acosta; the layout had changed by the time I moved here as a kid but I do remember that old "666 Colds" building at the northeastern foot of the bridge. I always grinned to see that emblazoned in bright neon in a Bible Belt town. I was surprised to find the company is still in business and headquartered in Jacksonville. Here's a better shot of that building as I remember it, from their web site:
http://www.monticellodrug.com/mdc-our-history.html (http://www.monticellodrug.com/mdc-our-history.html)
The original railroad bridge mentioned above was built by Flagler for the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River Railway, which became the Florida East Coast in 1895. The first Acosta Bridge was built so high because it had to clear the open span of the railroad bridge below it. (I'm guessing it was built beside it because of the government, since a bridge represented a potential hazard to navigation and beside the existing bridge would preserve the existing channel with minimum impedance.) The bridge was opened and closed by one of two small steam engines housed on either side of the center of the span. There were two boilers and engines so one could be out of service for maintenance. There's a picture of the bridge in the Publix on Riverside Avenue from the Jacksonville Historical Society, although the caption says the bridge was opened and closed with a manual crank mechanism. While small drawbridges were hand-cranked (the Seaboard bridge over the Trout River was), it would have been impossible to operate such a big bridge that way considering the number of times it was opened and closed every day. If you look at the picture closely, you will see the boiler houses and the twin smoke stacks above them.
The increase of traffic in the 1920s caused the FEC to double-track its main line as far as Miami (the Key West extension not needing it) and replace the bottle-neck bridge with the current structure, which is a Strauss Heel-Trunion. The trusses are Pratt, which is what the old Acosta was, too. The 1920s was about the end of that style's popularity. A Pratt truss looks like this: /|/|/|/|\|\|\|\
The Main Street-St. Elmo Acosta is a Warren truss: /|\|/|\|/|\|/|\
The diagonal members of the truss give it the strength. In a Pratt truss the vertical members are an integral part of the triangle. Many smaller Warren trusses have no vertical members: /\/\/\/\
^LP, thanks for the enlightenment. I posted this picture at another thread (see http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,4671.0.html ) and identified it as the 1925 bridge which is what the label called it. Mtrain disagreed, noting a single track in the picture. On review, it appears that is because the second track was under construction. What is your take?
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Quote from: LPBrennan on March 15, 2010, 10:02:43 PM
While small drawbridges were hand-cranked (the Seaboard bridge over the Trout River was), it would have been impossible to operate such a big bridge that way considering the number of times it was opened and closed every day.
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STJR, the 1890 bridge was double tracked in 1925, 6 years after the Jacksonville Terminal (Prime Osbourne) was completed. Your photo find is certainly during the construction, as is mine. Nice contribution LP, I like the /// description of some of the bridge types. As of a recent JTA study, the Trout River bridge is STILL a hand cranked span which I suppose is almost never used by river traffic. The study for Commuter Rail listed it as a choke point as well as an expense to modernize and automate it.
OCKLAWAHA
stjr: Your picture does show the double-track bridge being installed in 1925. There is one track shown, but you can see the girders to the left which supported the second track. There's an aerial view of the new bridge in Wayne Wood's book on Jacksonville's Historic Architecture. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the swing span of the old bridge mounted on a barge near the south end of the bridge, in the area where Baptist Hospital and the old Prudential buildings are now.
OCK: I saw the Trout River bridge being opened one day about twenty years ago. I happened to be on the old Main Street bridge there when the bridge tender came out of his shack with a long bar, which he inserted in the center of the bridge. He then walked around in circles, opening the bridge for a boat. The bridge is no longer manned, I believe, as CSX has posted signs on it indicating a number to be called 24 hours in advance of the bridge's needing to be opened. Apparently the Army Corps of Engineers allowed this as the Trout River is not really a commercially navigable waterway. (Just a guess on my part.) Large recreational boats on it are rare, I suppose.