Panhandle Bridge
40°25′59.12″N 79°59′53.06″W / 40.4330889°N 79.9980722°W / 40.4330889; -79.9980722
The Panhandle Bridge (officially the Monongahela River Bridge) carries the three lines of the Port Authority Light Rail Network across the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The name comes from Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, also known as the Panhandle Route, which operated over the bridge.
The basic structure was built in 1903, and was the third railroad bridge on the site since 1863. It was raised in 1912–1914 as part of a grade separation project. The bridge's function was to carry Panhandle Route passenger, mail and express trains from Pennsylvania Station in Pittsburgh, with a tunnel in between the station and the bridge. Pennsy Panhandle freight trains utilized the Ohio Connecting Bridge slightly downstream on the Ohio River, or went the long way around the West Virginia Panhandle via Conway, Pennsylvania.
Rail traffic over the Panhandle Bridge declined as passenger trains were discontinued, and Amtrak became the only regular user of the bridge from 1971 to 1979, when the New York-St. Louis-Kansas City National Limited was discontinued on October 1 of that year. As PRR successor Conrail had no use for the bridge and the restrictive downtown tunnel, it was sold to the Port Authority, who rebuilt the bridge beginning in 1982 as part of the downtown light rail subway project,[1][2] which removed trolleys from downtown streets and the Smithfield Street Bridge. PAT (as the Port Authority system was known at the time) light rail cars began using the bridge on July 7, 1985.
Near the southern end of the bridge, the rails split with a single track going up to Allentown. This was used for the now discontinued Brown Line, but it is still in use as a detour during maintenance work and service disruptions.[3]
See also
- List of crossings of the Monongahela River
- Pittsburgh & Steubenville Extension Railroad Tunnel
- Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad
- A one-car T Light Rail train crosses the bridge
- Bridge supports from the river
- Light rail crossing the bridge
References
- ^ Fisher, Ken (September 24, 1980). "Conrail turning over tunnel, Panhandle Bridge to PAT". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. p. 12 – via Google News Archive Search.
- ^ Blackley, Katie (May 27, 2019). "Where Do The Abandoned Third Set Of Tracks At Steel Plaza Lead?". 90.5 WESA.
- ^ O'Toole, Bill (September 6, 2018). "Will the T return to Allentown? Residents and business owners weigh in". NEXTpittsburgh. Retrieved June 23, 2023.
External links
- Panhandle Bridge on pghbridges.com
- Panhandle (1903) at Structurae
- v
- t
- e
- 30th Street Bridge
- 31st Street Bridge
- 33rd Street Railroad Bridge
- 40th Street Bridge
- Bloomfield Bridge
- Birmingham Bridge
- Charles Anderson Memorial Bridge
- David McCullough Bridge
- Fort Duquesne Bridge
- Fort Pitt Bridge
- Fort Wayne Railroad Bridge
- Glenwood Bridge
- Glenwood B&O Railroad Bridge
- Greenfield Bridge
- Highland Park Bridge
- Homestead Grays Bridge
- Hot Metal Bridge
- Liberty Bridge
- McKees Rocks Bridge
- Panhandle Bridge
- Panther Hollow Bridge
- Schenley Bridge
- Senator Robert D. Fleming Bridge
- Smithfield Street Bridge
- South Tenth Street Bridge
- Swindell Bridge
- Three Sisters
- Veterans Bridge
- West End Bridge
This article about a specific rail bridge in the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e
This article about a bridge in Pennsylvania is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e
This article related to a building or structure in Pittsburgh is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- v
- t
- e