page_title: John Alexander Low Waddell
section_title: Notable works
hierarchical_section_title: John Alexander Low Waddell / Notable works
caption_attribution_description: Cropped version of original, Waddell "A" Truss Bridge, Spanning Lin Branch Creek, Trimble vicinity, Clinton County, MO. (9. LONG DISTANCE GENERAL SIDE VIEW. HAER MO,25-TRIM.V,1-9)
context_page_description: John Alexander Low Waddell was an American civil engineer and prolific bridge designer, with more than a thousand structures to his credit in the United States, Canada, as well as Mexico, Russia, China, Japan, and New Zealand. Waddell’s work set standards for elevated railroad systems and helped develop materials suitable for large span bridges. His most important contribution was the development of the steam-powered high-lift bridge. His design was first used in 1893 for Chicago's South Halsted Street Lift-Bridge over the Chicago River; he went on to design more than 100 other movable bridges, and the company he founded continues to make movable bridges of various types. Waddell was a widely respected writer on bridge design, and an advocate of quality training of engineers. Many of Waddell's surviving bridges are now considered historic landmarks.
  One of his most notable works is the ASB Bridge in Kansas City Missouri.
  It is only one of two of this design ever built, and is in use as a railroad bridge for the BNSF.
context_section_description: (not necessarily an exhaustive list)
  South Halsted Street Lift-Bridge, Chicago, Illinois (1893)
  Waddell "A" Truss Bridge Parkville, Missouri (1898) (U.S. Patent 529,220)
  Kansas City Southern Railroad Bridge, Cross Bayou Shreveport, Louisiana (1890, re-erected 1926)
  Hawthorne Bridge, Portland, Oregon (1910)
  Armour-Swift-Burlington Bridge, Kansas City, Missouri (1911)
  Steel Bridge, Portland, Oregon (1912)
  Colorado Street Bridge, Pasadena, California (1913)
  11th Street Bridge (aka Murray Morgan Bridge), Tacoma, Washington (1913)
  Snowden Bridge, Bainville and Fairview, Montana (1913)
  Caddo Lake Drawbridge, Mooringsport, Louisiana (1914)
  Twelfth Street Trafficway Viaduct, Kansas City, Missouri (1915)
  Detroit-Superior Bridge, Cleveland, Ohio (1917)
  Interstate Bridge, Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon (1917)
  Washington Bridge, Milford and Stratford, Connecticut (1921)
  Memorial Bridge, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery, Maine (1923)
  CRRNJ Newark Bay Bridge, Elizabethport and Bayonne, New Jersey (1926)
  Outerbridge Crossing, Perth Amboy, New Jersey, and Staten Island, New York (opened June 29, 1928)
  Goethals Bridge, Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Staten Island, New York (opened June 29, 1928)
  Lower Hack Lift, Kearny and Jersey City, New Jersey (1928)
  Route 46 Hackensack River Bridge, Little Ferry and Ridgefield Park, New Jersey (1934)
  Fourteenth Street (L&I) Bridge, Louisville, Kentucky (1918)
caption: Waddell "A" Truss Bridge (1898), spanning the Linn Branch Creek, Missouri. Removed to construct Smithville Lake.
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