Brownsville Bridge

Brownsville Bridge
Coordinates	40°1′21″N 79°53′24″W
Carries	SR 4025
Crosses	Monongahela River near a ford
Locale	Brownsville, Pennsylvania and West Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Other name(s)	Intercounty Bridge West Brownsville Bridge
Characteristics
Design	Truss bridge
Total length	945 feet (288 m)
Width	22.6 feet (6.9 m)
Longest span	520 feet (160 m)
Clearance above	20 feet (6.1 m)
History
Opened	1914
Brownsville Bridge, Intercounty Bridge, West Brownsville Bridge
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation Landmark
Location	LR 268 over Monongahela River, West Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Area	less than one acre
Built	1913
Architect	Herman & Armstrong; Ft. Pitt Bridge Works
Architectural style	Pennsylvania Petit truss
MPS	Highway Bridges Owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Transportation TR
NRHP reference No.	88000834
Added to NRHP	June 22, 1988
Location

The Brownsville Bridge, also known as the Intercounty Bridge and the West Brownsville Bridge (most often heard in the high counties east of the river), is a truss bridge that carries vehicular traffic across the Monongahela River between Brownsville, Pennsylvania and West Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Since the opening of the Lane Bane Bridge and highway project to carry much of the intercounty through traffic away from the main streets of downtown Brownsville in the early 1960s, another commonly heard name is Old Brownsville Bridge for the four high level viaduct.

Approaching the Brownsville-West Brownsville Bridge from the flat shelf of the non-cut bank landforms of West Brownsville.

The West Brownsville-Brownsville Bridge was completed in 1914 to replace an 1831 wooden structure that was ill-suited for the vehicular traffic that the National Road was beginning to carry, as motorized vehicle traffic began replacing animal powered transportation technologies. The famous federal route has crossed the river at this point since its inception, with ferry service in the early nineteenth century. In 1960, the Lane Bane Bridge was constructed just downstream and U.S. Route 40 was moved to the new high-level structure. Currently, the route serves local traffic and is meant to tie together the interconnected towns on each bank.

It is designated as a historic bridge by the Washington County History & Landmarks Foundation.

See also

• List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania
• List of crossings of the Monongahela River

External links

• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-472, "Old Brownsville Bridge"
• National Register nomination form