Talk:Kinzie Street railroad bridge

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A fact from Kinzie Street railroad bridge appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 24 February 2008.

[edit] Questioning longest and heaviest claim

Although two citations are given, I would like to question the claim that "in 1908 it was the world's longest and heaviest bascule bridge". According to this article, the bridge has a longest span of 170 feet and a total length of 196 feet. Tower Bridge in London, which opened 14 years earlier in 1894, has a longest span of 200 feet and a total length of 800 feet, both of which are longer. Perhaps there is a distinction made because Tower Bridge has two bascules, while the Kinzie Street bridge has only one? Or perhaps Kinzie is the longest and heaviest railroad bascule bridge? Truthanado (talk) 00:42, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

:Interesting point. Another possibility is that it was the longest and heaviest bascule bridge in the United States--I have noticed in the past that some sources confuse the United States and the world. —Jeremy (talk) 00:52, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

The tower bridge article states: the central span of 200 feet (61 m) between the towers was split into two equal bascules or leaves. That means that each leaf was 100 feet. Kinzie is a single leaf of 170 feet. I think that this is what the sources mean when they say that it was the longest. —Jeremy (talk) 00:56, 25 February 2008 (UTC)