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    Huey P. Long Bridge
    Huey P. Long Bridge
    Huey P. Long Bridge
    Ebook185 pages57 minutes

    Huey P. Long Bridge

    By Tonja Koob Marking and Jennifer Snape

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    Named after the 40th governor of Louisiana, the Huey P. Long Bridge, just outside of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish, is the longest railroad bridge in the United States. For 15 years after it opened in 1935, it was the longest railroad bridge in the world. Initially conceived in 1892, the Huey P. was the first bridge to span the deep-draft navigation channel of the lower Mississippi River, opening the path for a southern transcontinental railroad. The highway and pedestrian portions of the bridge provided additional transport, which previously had only been available by ferry. New Orleans and its surrounding regions grew in population and economic importance as the publicly owned bridge connected the Port of New Orleans to the rest of the United States through six Class I railroads. The Huey P. continues to function in its original, now undersized, capacity. In April 2006, the state began a widening of the bridge to double its automobile lanes from 18 feet to 43 feet. In September 2012, the American Society of Civil Engineers dedicated the Huey P. Long Bridge as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 10, 2013
    ISBN9781439643457
    Huey P. Long Bridge
    Author

    Tonja Koob Marking

    This is the second Arcadia Publishing book written by Tonja Koob Marking and Jennifer Snape. The two civil engineers find inspiration in the historic engineering achievements that made life in south Louisiana possible, and they want to share those accomplishments with the people of Louisiana.

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      Book preview

      Huey P. Long Bridge - Tonja Koob Marking

      construction.

      INTRODUCTION

      In a city like New Orleans, surrounded on many sides by bodies of water, bridges form an important connection between the city and surrounding communities for the transportation of people and goods. City planners, politicians, engineers, and businessmen had been envisioning a connection across the lower Mississippi River near New Orleans since 1892, when planners began laying out the possibilities of a railroad bridge between the east and west banks near New Orleans. Newspaper articles discussed technical options regarding location, size, cost, and height of the new bridge, and commented on how the city and surrounding areas would economically benefit from a railroad bridge.

      In 1935, the Huey P. Long Bridge opened across the Mississippi River just upstream of New Orleans. It was the longest railroad bridge in the world. Prior to the Huey P, as locals call the bridge, rail traffic crossed the Mississippi River at New Orleans on ferries. Railroad workers disassembled individual cars from the train, transferred them to ferries, and reassembled the train on the opposite bank. Rail traffic wanting to avoid the additional time and expense of ferry crossings routed trains to the closest Mississippi River rail bridge to New Orleans, upstream nearly 200 miles at Vicksburg, Mississippi.

      When a downstream Mississippi River railroad bridge was initially conceived in 1892, the soft, deltaic soils and difficult river environment made its construction a near impossibility with existing methods. The final plan, developed 30 years later by bridge engineer Ralph Modjeski, pushed design and construction limits of civil engineering to make the bridge a reality. Bridge engineers still utilize some of Modjeski’s ideas almost 80 years later.

      At Governor Long’s insistence, engineers included a vehicular and pedestrian bridge with the rail bridge. Huey P. Long was a strong supporter of road infrastructure in Louisiana, creating nearly 13,000 miles of paved roads and building approximately 100 bridges as part of his administration’s transportation program. Much to the chagrin of modern drivers, road lanes accommodated the smaller vehicles of the 1930s. The lanes were nine feet wide and without shoulders, leading one person to comment that more prayers have been uttered atop the Huey P. Long Bridge than in all the churches of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish combined. The final bridge included a double railroad track and twin 18-foot roadways with two-and-a-half-foot pedestrian walkways. Impressively, the final cost of the bridge in 1935 was $9,424,981, more than $3 million under its budget of $13 million.

      The New Orleans Public Belt Railroad owned, and continues to own, the bridge. This was an unusual arrangement at the time, as most railroad bridges were privately owned by a single railroad company. The Huey P, being owned by a public entity, is available to all rail lines servicing the Port of New Orleans. The bridge continues to be a transportation workhorse in the greater New Orleans area. It remains the longest railroad bridge in the United States, at 22,995 feet (4.35 miles) in length. It presently provides access to the Port of New Orleans for six of the seven major rail carriers in the United States, and every day, approximately 50,000 vehicles cross the 8,076-foot-long roadway portion of the bridge.

      In 2011, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) dedicated the Huey P. Long Bridge as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The structure joined the Eiffel Tower, the Panama Canal, and the Capitol as one of the fewer than 300 landmarks in the world so designated. To become an ASCE landmark, the Huey P met the following requirements: being at least 50 years old and of national historic civil engineering significance; representing a significant facet of civil engineering history; having made a significant contribution, such as being the first project designed or constructed by a particular method or utilizing some unique or significant construction or engineering technique; and having contributed to the development of the nation or at least a very large region. On September 28, 2012, the Huey P. Long Bridge received its official declaration in a plaque ceremony attended by local and state dignitaries. Huey Long himself even made a dramatic appearance.

      Following the dedication ceremony, on October 10, 2012, the Jefferson Parish Council passed the following resolution in honor of the Huey P. Long Bridge:

      On joint motion of all Councilmembers present, the following resolution was offered:

      RESOLUTION NO. 119663

      A resolution commending and congratulating the Huey P. Long Bridge as being designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. (Parishwide)

      WHEREAS, the American Society of Civil Engineers is holding a dedication ceremony on September 28, 2012; and

      WHEREAS, the Huey P. Long Bridge will join fewer than 250 other landmarks around the world with such a designation including the Eiffel Tower, the Panama Canal and the United States Capitol Building; and

      WHEREAS, this Council wishes to recognize, commend and congratulate the Huey P. Long Bridge as being designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

      THEREFORE, BE IT HEREBY RESOLVED BY THE JEFFERSON PARISH COUNCIL of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, acting as governing authority of said Parish:

      SECTION 1. That this Council does hereby commend and congratulate the Huey P. Long Bridge as being designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

      The foregoing resolution having been submitted to a vote, the vote thereon was as follows:

      YEAS: 7NAYS: NoneABSENT: None

      The resolution was declared to be adopted on this the 10th day of October, 2012.

      One

      NEED AND PLAN

      FOR A BRIDGE

      In 1895, American commerce centered on the Mississippi River. Agricultural goods from throughout the Mississippi,

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