City - State - NEW ENGLAND Country - United States
About
Jamestown, RI 11/20/04 6:39AM
1 second exposure f/22 ISO-100
A suspension bridge that could have become an intrusion on the peaceful dignified Rhode Island coast has managed to become an integrated part of the seascape. Most people know it as the Newport Bridge simply because it links the city of Newport with the island of Jamestown and the mainland of Rhode Island. Before the superhighway came through, there was merely a ferry linking the two settlements. That ferry link had been inadequate for decades before the bridge was built. The first significant effort to construct a permanent span rose in the 1940?s. No fewer than 32 plans were drawn up for linking the cities either by bridge, tunnel, or both. Some failed for political or economic reasons. Others were killed by voters, or rejected by the Navy which has very specific requirements of the bridges its ships pass under. Constructing a bridge at this point of the coastline proved to be a challenge. The pilings had to be driven extraordinarily deep in order to reach bedrock. While constructing the main towers, divers actually lived in a capsule underwater for a week at a time and came out of the capsule for six hours a day to work underwater.
The Claiborne Pell Bridge is named after a former Rhode Island senator.
At the time of its completion, it was the longest bridge in New England, depending on how one defines the boundaries of New England.
Total length - 11,248 feet. The main span is 1,600 feet.
The bridge is supported by a total of 56 piers
Some piles were dug as much as 162 feet below the water's surface, which still is a record for pile driving.
Each of the bridge's main cables has 76 strands, and each strand had 61 wires (each 0.2 inch in diameter and measuring 4,516 feet long).
Laid end to end, the wires would stretch for more than 8,000 miles.
The cables weighed a total of 2,280 tons.
The finishing touches included the installation of 35 miles of electrical wire for the bridge's lighting system.
Approximately 17,500 cubic yards of concrete were used to build the roadway deck.
The distance between towers is 1,600 feet, and at center span, the roadway provides a 206-foot vertical clearance for ocean-bound vessels.
In February 1981, a tanker loaded with 50,000 barrels of oil made a direct hit on one of the main piers of the bridge. The only damage sustained to the bridge was a smear of gray paint from the tanker.
According to the RIDOT, approximately 27,000 vehicles use the bridge each day.
One of my favorite subjects and producer of many salable images. You've done "her" justice. Will be submitting an image from nearly the same location soon. Best bill
Fabulous landscape photo and a superb about, very interesting indeed. My wife's best friend is a civil engineer and designs bridges of which she has several in the UK. I will forward this photo on for her :-)
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{K:5597} 1/20/2005
