A bascule bridge (also referred to as 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.
17-643: The Hanover Street Bridge , officially the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge , is a double leaf bascule bridge crossing the middle branch of the Patapsco River along Hanover Street ( Maryland Route 2 ) in Baltimore, Maryland . The Hanover Street Bridge is a 2,290 feet (698 m)-long Beaux-Arts -style double leaf bascule bridge spanning the middle branch of the Patapsco River in the outer harbor of Baltimore , linking
34-514: A consulting and contracting engineer. Scherzer was the inventor of a refinement of the bascule bridge called the Scherzer rolling lift bridge. His last engineering work before he died, done in 1893, was the design of two of these rolling lift bridges in Chicago. His design pivots the bridge like a rocking horse. The friction is lowered because it is rolling friction. Moreover when the bridge
51-579: A day before Memorial Day , the bridge was dedicated as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge, in a ceremony attended by over 600 people. Schmoke and president of the City Council Mary Pat Clarke spoke at the ceremony, in which memorial plaques funded by local veteran groups were placed on the bridge. At the same time, three Huey helicopters flew overhead and a fireboat shot water into the air. Around
68-403: Is open the channel is completely free as the mechanism has rolled away the bridge from the edge leaving the passage free for wide traffic. The first rolling lift bridge ever built was the 1895-opened Van Buren Street Bridge (long since replaced by a newer bridge of a non-rolling bascule type) in the city of Chicago and was patented by Scherzer. The second rolling lift bridge constructed spanned
85-586: The Chicago River between Jackson and Van Buren Streets. These bridge projects were for the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad Company. The timing of Scherzer's unique design could not have been better. Railroads were being built with bridges needed to cross rivers in dense urban sites. His patented method made it possible for a bridge to accommodate a change of grade. In 1908 his contribution
102-555: The Maryland State Roads Commission , becoming the longest reinforced concrete bridge in Maryland at its opening in 1916. The bridge's construction spurred residential and industrial growth in the area, causing the waterfront on the middle branch Patapsco River to be zoned for heavy industry and manufacturing. This made the waterway accumulate silt , causing it to be less viable for shipping, and erasing
119-411: The counterweights to the span may be located above or below the bridge deck. The fixed- trunnion (sometimes 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
136-583: 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 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
153-472: The downtown and the community of Westport . It has 38 spans . The Hanover Street Bridge replaced the Light Street Bridge , a wooden "long bridge" built in 1858, which had burnt down in 1914. Around the time of the construction of the bridge, trucks had begun to overtake steamboats as the preferred means of transferring goods. It was designed by the J. E. Greiner Company on the behalf of
170-744: The late 1990s, a makeshift tent city of homeless people had developed under the bridge. After the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse on March 26, 2024, the Hanover Street Bridge became a secondary alternate route for drivers, and a primary alternate route for trucks containing hazardous loads, which are not permitted to use the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel or the Fort McHenry Tunnel . Double leaf bascule bridge The name comes from
187-649: The position of engineer for three years at the Matthiessen & Hegeler Zinc Company at La Salle, Illinois . In 1883 he was employed by the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway Company. He took up the specialty field of bridge engineering. Scherzer in 1885 was employed as the assistant to the chief engineer of the Keystone Bridge Company of Chicago. He was there for eight years. Scherzer entered into business for himself in 1893 in Chicago as
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#1732791069449204-633: The previous recreational area around the river. Around late 1992, a group of Vietnam veterans , led by Ed Vogel, had begun to petition the Baltimore City Council to dedicate the bridge, which was near the Maryland Vietnam Veterans Memorial , to the veterans of the Vietnam War. A bill to rename the bridge passed the council, being signed into law by Mayor of Baltimore Kurt Schmoke . On May 30, 1993,
221-619: The private schooling of Professor Eggers at the age of 15 for college prep courses. He later then took up civil engineering at the Polytechnicum college in Zurich, Switzerland when he was eighteen years old. There he was at the top of his class. Scherzer was considered a competitor both in play and studies by all that knew him closely. He graduated from the Zurich engineering college in 1880. Scherzer returned to America in 1880 and took
238-623: 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 was patented (1901) by Theodor Rall. One of the few surviving examples is the Broadway Bridge (1913), in Portland, Oregon. William Donald Scherzer William Donald Scherzer (January 27, 1858 – July 20, 1893)
255-551: The world for the passage of the largest vessels of commerce. 1893 Lift bridge patent – Because of Scherzer's early demise, his brother took over the Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company and derived fourteen additional related patents pertaining to rolling lift bridges and built 175 of these type bridges nationwide by 1916. Scherzer never married. He suffered a year with typhoid fever which brought an attack of brain fever . Scherzer died from
272-550: Was an American engineer and inventor who invented the rolling lift bridge . Scherzer's parents were William and Wilhelmina Scherzer, who immigrated from Germany in 1847. Scherzer was born in Peru, Illinois , on January 27, 1858, as the second son in a family of three sons and one daughter. Scherzer received his primary education in public schools. He exhibited talent in art and mathematics, where his father had exhibited talent in music and art. After elementary school Scherzer entered
289-408: Was recognized: William Scherzer [was] the inventor and patentee of what is acknowledged to be one of the most useful mechanisms of the generation. [His] invention has been of great benefit in the advancement of commerce and civilization. [Scherzer’s contribution] has facilitated and made possible the opening and development of the great rivers, canals and waterways throughout
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