42°53′46″N 70°48′59″W / 42.89611°N 70.81639°W / 42.89611; -70.81639
7-552: The Hampton Bridge is a bascule bridge that spans the Hampton River near Hampton Beach, New Hampshire , United States. Constructed with steel and concrete, the bridge is officially named for Neil R. Underwood. Its predecessor was constructed of wood by Wallace D. Lovell and was referred to as the Mile-Long Wooden Bridge . For a time in the early 1900s, Hampton Bridge earned the title of longest bridge in
14-526: A drawbridge or a lifting bridge ) is a moveable bridge with a counterweight that continuously balances a span , or leaf, throughout its upward swing to provide clearance for boat traffic. It may be single- or double-leafed. The name comes from the French term for balance scale , which employs the same principle. Bascule bridges are the most common type of movable span because they open quickly and require relatively little energy to operate, while providing
21-571: A "Chicago" bascule) rotates around a large axle that raises the span(s). The Chicago bascule name derives from the location where it is widely used, and is a refinement by Joseph Strauss of the fixed-trunnion. The rolling lift trunnion (sometimes a "Scherzer" rolling lift), raises the span by rolling on a track resembling a rocking-chair base. The "Scherzer" rolling lift is a refinement patented in 1893 by American engineer William Donald Scherzer . The rarer Rall type combines rolling lift with longitudinal motion on trunnions when opening. It
28-533: The United States. The completion of the old bridge took almost a year and according to the Exeter Newsletter of July 5, 1901, was a "great undertaking". Long hours of manpower went into moving materials and building it. The bridge measured 4,740 feet (1,440 m) in length and 30 feet (9.1 m) in width. It was supported by 3,865 wooden piles driven deep into the bottom of the river. Moving
35-431: The materials used to build the bridge presented a great challenge. A tugboat named the H.A. Mathes towed rafts full of lumber to the bridge site from Portsmouth . "Other materials were floated downstream to the bridge from the railroad station at Hampton Falls ." The official opening of the "Mile-long Bridge" was May 14, 1901. Chester B. Jordan , the governor at the time, was among many political figures who attended
42-684: The opening. As the end of the era of trolley cars rolled in, automobiles took over and the wooden bridge was not effective anymore. Lovell sold the bridge to the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway . "By 1930, the structure began to show the strain of the years of shifting sands, ice floes and heavy traffic." New Hampshire was faced with making plans for a modernized structure to replace the wooden bridge. The current bridge opened in 1949. [REDACTED] Media related to Hampton Bridge at Wikimedia Commons Bascule bridge A bascule bridge (also referred to as
49-425: The possibility for unlimited vertical clearance for marine traffic. Bascule bridges have been in use since ancient times, but until the adoption of steam power in the 1850s, very long, heavy spans could not be moved quickly enough for practical application. There are three types of bascule bridge and the counterweights to the span may be located above or below the bridge deck. The fixed- trunnion (sometimes
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