page_title: Van Buren Street Bridge
section_title: Details
hierarchical_section_title: Van Buren Street Bridge / Details
caption_attribution_description: English: w:Van Buren Street Bridge in Corvallis, Oregon, USA
context_page_description: The Van Buren Street Bridge is a swing span, steel motor vehicle bridge spanning the Willamette River at Corvallis in the U.S. state of Oregon. Opened in 1913, the black colored bridge was the first bridge across the river at Corvallis and is now the third oldest bridge across the river. Owned by the state and maintained by the Oregon Department of Transportation, the 708-foot long span is of a through truss design and carries two lanes of traffic of Oregon Route 34 eastbound from Corvallis into neighboring Linn County. The bridge no longer is able to swing open.
context_section_description: The bridge was the first bridge across the Willamette River at Corvallis. Carrying one lane of traffic eastbound, it connects Benton County on the west to Linn County on the east side of the Willamette. It carries Oregon Route 34 out of downtown Corvallis, with the Harrison Street Bridge to the north carrying OR 34 into downtown. The single lane creates traffic problems at the evening rush hour with three lanes of the highway narrowing to one lane to cross the bridge.
  A swing bridge, its main 249-foot (76 m)-span could swivel on its axis and open to allow river traffic to pass. This is accomplished by using a turn key placed into the turning bolt and rotating the bolt. Six people would rotate the key using a 17-foot (5.2 m) long wood rod that combined resemble a corkscrew. This would turn the 24-foot (7.3 m) wide gear that had 300 teeth along its circumference and the span would spin along 42 rollers constructed of steel. The operators could use two gears, one opened the span in 150 revolutions, while the other completed the job in 50 revolutions. When opened it provided 102 feet (31 m) of clearance on either side of the bridge.
  Van Buren Street Bridge is the last movable-span truss bridge constructed by the pin connection method located on the West Coast. Pins were used to connect the trusses, but the technique was abandoned after rivets came into usage. The bridge is also one of only two swing style bridges left in Oregon used for vehicle traffic, and is the third oldest bridge across the Willamette after the Steel and Hawthorne bridges in Portland.
  Overall, the bridge is 708 feet (216 m) long and is composed of three separate steel spans that rest on concrete piers. The swing span is a Pratt through truss, and the next longest part a 171-foot (52 m) long Parker through truss span on the western end. The eastern approach is a Warren pony truss that measures 57 feet (17 m) in length. There is also a 19-foot (5.8 m) long part on the far west end built of timber, which was originally a 57-foot (17 m) long steel pony truss. The bridge has 15 feet (4.6 m) of vertical clearance and is 29 feet (8.8 m) wide, which includes a 7-foot (2.1 m) sidewalk and a 18.5-foot (5.6 m) roadway.
caption: Western side of the bridge
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