Manayunk Bridge Truss, 1845
date: label: Date made
content: 1844-1845
name: label: maker
content: Reading Company
notes: label: Description
content: This span that once crossed Manayunk Creek in Pennsylvania is from the first iron truss bridge built in the United States. Richard Osbourne, the British-born chief engineer for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, designed this bridge in the 1840s, based on a cross-hatch wood truss pattern developed by the American engineer William Howe.
label: Description
content: P&R shops crafted this span from cast and wrought iron, assembling it without bolts or screws, much like the timber joinery found in all-wood bridges of the era.
label: Description
content: The railroad used the new, stronger iron bridges to speed coal trains from Schuykill Valley to Philadelphia coal yards, bypassing the less efficient canal system.
label: Description
content: The Smithsonian collected this span in 1942, days before it was scheduled to be melted down as wartime scrap iron.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: See more items in
content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
label: See more items in
content: Industry & Manufacturing
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Reading Company through Mr. I.L. Gordon
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.312552.01
label: catalog number
content: 312552.01
label: accession number
content: 164162
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Bridge Truss
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 1/2 ft x 42 ft x 12 ft; 1.0668 m x 12.8016 m x 3.6576 m