Pittsburgh Bridges: The Birmingham Bridge

Towering over the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh are the green arches of the Birmingham Bridge. Odd for more than just its color, the bridge stands as a reminder to carefully consider your public projects. Thanks to being massively overbuilt, this is one bridge in the Pittsburgh area that usually doesn’t have traffic issues though, and it serves as an important lifeline between the Universities and the nightlife of the South Side.

The History of the Birmingham Bridge

The Birmingham Bridge was constructed in 1976 as part of a conceptualized highway system that would have created a high speed connection between the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers without clogging up Downtown Pittsburgh. As a part of this, it was constructed as a six lane bridge with all the capacity needed for the major plans.

They placed the bridge adjacent to the now demolished Brady Street Bridge. Originally, they planned on-ramps and off-ramps to connect to local roads as well as continue to the highway that would come through. As we see today, that highway never did come through. Instead, it was decided to use local roads entirely, and that the Birmingham Bridge would have to make do. Thus, it is too large for the area, and more interestingly, has ramps to nowhere. It starts and stops at abrupt T intersections on both sides, making it decidedly less efficient than it was designed to be. Visually, it looks to be enormous, made all the larger because of the lack of apparent need for such a bridge. Although it crosses over and threads past the main routes into and out of the city, it never connects efficiently to them, making it seem even sillier.

The statistics of the Birmingham Bridge are typical of bridges designed for higher loads. It has six lanes, and is 1662 feet long with 607 ft in the longest span. It has 64.8 ft of vertical clearance at normal river levels.

The Birmingham Bridge Today

Today, the Birmingham Bridge is important to pedestrians, cyclists and cars alike. Connecting the popular South Side to the University of Pittsburgh and Oakland is one of its most important roles. For many students, snaking down to the Hot Metal Bridge is not an easy option, so the Birmingham Bridge, connecting to Oakland about halfway up the Allegheny Plateau, offers a simpler solution. For that purpose, it has ample shoulder and bike lane for riders, but crossing the on and off ramps on the northern connection should be done cautiously. A few buses cross the bridge as well, with the same goal of connecting the people of Pittsburgh to the South Side and Carson Street shopping.

It also has the rare honor of being a green bridge in a town almost entirely devoted to “Pittsburgh Yellow” bridges. Were it closer to Downtown, I suspect that local loyalties would force the color to the uniform yellow, but for now it remains the green color typically associated with exposed copper. [It is a steel bridge. The color is paint, not verdigris.]

As you traverse the Monongahela it is hard to miss this green, hulking bridge. Now you know why it is so undeniably large, and why those ramps don’t seem to go anywhere. Once again, poor planning confused Pittsburgh’s already difficult roadways, but it is worth noting that this bridge is still important and useful, if overbuilt.

Sources:

Pghbridges.com: Birmingham Bridge


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