Mead Avenue Bridge, Spanning French Creek at Mead Avenue, Meadville, Crawford County, PA

Significance: Mead Avenue, formerly Dock Street, bears the unusual distinction of having two bridges on the same site at one time. Grafted to the original double-intersection Whipple truss built by Penn Bridge Works, external Baltimore trusses help this 1872 structure carry modern traffic loads. This compromise, born of economizing impulse and public turmoil, has allowed the bridge a longer life than might otherwise have been possible.

Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N598

Survey number: HAER PA-19

Building/structure dates: 1871-1872 Initial Construction

Building/structure dates: 1911-1912 Subsequent Work

iron truss bridges steel truss bridges transportation bridge construction reinforcement civil engineering meadville crawford county pa mead bridge mead avenue bridge french french creek mead avenue meadville crawford crawford county pennsylvania jack e boucher cambria steel works eric n delony susan h gordon historic american engineering record lackawanna steel works jet lowe julia maleeva northwestern pennsylvania trolley company penn bridge works pennsylvania department of transportation pennsylvania historical and museum commission rodgers brothers company ben a shackleford t white and son union iron mills grace h wallace rachel j zsembery photo ultra high resolution high resolution library of congress

1969 - 1980

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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