Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge
The Ohio Connecting Railroad Bridge is a steel bridge which crosses the Ohio River at Brunot's Island at the west end of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It consists of two major through truss spans over the main and back channels of the river, of and respectively, with deck truss approaches. History Original bridge The original Ohio Connecting Bridge was built in 1890 by the Ohio Connecting Railway. It was a single-track bridge. It was built as a freight bypass so the freight trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad could bypass the congested passenger station in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Traffic could move in either direction between the Pennsylvania Railroad main line in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania (part of the Pittsburgh Division at that location) and the Fort Wayne Line at the north end of the Ohio Connecting Bridge. Trains would traverse the Port Perry Branch, Monongahela Division, and Panhandle Division in order to reach the Pittsburgh Division or the Fort Wayne Line. Construction of the northern approach to the bridge required the demolition of the original Pittsburgh U.S. Marine Hospital (Pittsburgh). Current bridge By 1915 the original bridge was not large enough to handle the increasing freight traffic, so a new bridge was built