Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge - Bourne MA

City:: Bourne, MA
Site Type:: Infrastructure and Utilities, Roads, Bridges, and Tunnels
New Deal Agencies:: Federal & Military Operations, Public Works Funding, Army Corps of Engineers, Public Works Administration (PWA)
Started:: 1933
Completed:: 1935
Quality of Information:: Very Good
Marked:: Unknown
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Cape Cod Canal Railroad Bridge was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933-35. It was part of a much larger project that included widening the canal and three bridges across it, for which the PWA made a grant of $6,138,000. (Short & Stanley-Brown 1939)

The bridge was designed by Parsons, Klapp, Brinckerhoff, and Douglas, along with Mead and White, for the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates all three bridges and the canal. The main space is 544 feet long and has 135-foot clearance when raised (Wikipedia)

At the time of its completion, it was the longest vertical lift span in the world. It is now the second longest lift bridge in the United States. (wikipedia)

Source notes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod_Canal_Railroad_Bridge

C.W. Short and R. Stanley-Brown. Public Buildings: A Survey of Architecture of Projects Constructed by Federal and Other Governmental Bodies Between the Years 1933 and 1939 with the Assistance of the Public Works Administration. (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1939).

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on July 12, 2013.
Additional contributions by Richard Walker.