Smithfield Street Bridge

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**Smithfield Street Bridge**
Smithfield Street Bridge in 1974
Carries	4 lanes of roadway 2 pedestrian walkways
Crosses	Monongahela River
Locale	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Design	Lenticular truss bridge
Longest span	2 spans, 360 feet each
Total length	1,184 feet
Clearance below	42.5 feet

The Smithfield Street Bridge is a lenticular truss bridge crossing the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The bridge was designed by Gustav Lindenthal, the engineer who later designed the Hell Gate Bridge. The bridge was built between 1881-83. It was widened in 1889 and widened again in 1911. The bridge has been designated a National Historic Civic Engineering Landmark.

The present bridge is the third bridge at the site. In 1818, a wooden bridge was built across the Monongahela by Louis Wernwag at a cost of $102,000. This bridge was destroyed in Pittsburgh's Great Fire of 1845. The second bridge on the site was a wire rope suspension bridge built by John A. Roebling. Increases in both bridge traffic and river traffic eventually made the lightly-built bridge with eight short spans inadequate. The present Lindenthal bridge was built in its place.

The Smithfield Street bridge is the second-to-last of the many bridges which span the Monongahela before the river joins with the Allegheny River to form the Ohio River at Pittsburgh. The Fort Pitt Bridge is further downstream of it.

Until July 3, 1985, when they were moved to the Panhandle Bridge, Port Authority Transit streetcars used the bridge. They continued on a loop through downtown on Wood Street, Grant Street and Liberty Avenue. After a 1994-1995 rehabilitation, the former streetcar area on the east side became an extra traffic lane.^[1]

The bridge connects Smithfield Street in Downtown Pittsburgh with Station Square.