First Look At The Whipple Bridge
Here’s a first look at the Whipple truss bridge that will soon grace the Erie Canal Terminus. The bridge has just been assembled at BIDCO (along the Buffalo River), and will be floated by barge tomorrow morning, where it will rest in the Commercial Slip until Tuesday, February 6th. It will be the job our Edward Cotter fireboat (oldest operational in the world), to crush the ice along the way as it leads the bridge to its destination. A good photo op will be along the DL&W Train Terminal.
Once the bridge is in position (on the 6th), it will be hoisted by crane until it is securely resting on the canal slip abutments. After that, the wood decking will be added in preparation of a ceremonial crossing by select officials. Hopefully there will be many onlookers at all of these milestone events, which will mark the long-awaited return of a significant and historical parcel of land to the public (and the iconic Whipple Bridge that will appear on future postcards... just as it did in the past).
Very nice. Looks like the new Howell Bridge in Rochester. Now hopefully Benderson doesn't ruin the emerging historic look of the inner harbor with their typical suburban boxes.
Kudos to the talented structural engineer---Joe Fonsi--who was the designer for this centerpiece element of the canal terminus project. It's been told that when originally scoped out, there was not enough budget to cover what was then estimated to be a very expensive, custom-made bridge. Joe painstakenly researched the original design drawings of this area's early 19th century Whipple truss bridge and came up with a excellent interpretation using relatively conventional steel components -- making it more feasible to include in the initial phase of construction.
Are we really expecting this to be "iconic"? I can imagine some people walking across it without even noticing. It looks like a very simple pedestrian bridge, functional but not inspiring or iconic.
Martino-
These bridges are iconic of the Erie Canal (low bridge, everybody down, low bridge, cause we're comin' to a town, you'll always know you're neighbor and you'll always know your pal, 15 miles on the Erie Canal.... a song which every gradeschooler in America is taught).
So, yes it is a highly symbolic bridge representing the place of the Erie Canal in American transportation, commerce, and frontier expansion.
looks like the twin span proposal from a few years back.
Nice little e-documentary here:
http://www.eriecanal.org/UnionCollege/The_Bridge-add.html
This certainly is a step in the right direction. Congratulations to all involved!
Living Forge,
Obviously, smybols and representations always have their limitations. In my opinion, a folk song does not justify a bridge design.
I just can't take some of these comments sometimes. It's not inspirational? Are you serious?
This is the jewel in the crown - a close replica of the historic Commercial Slip bridge that once existed there. Kudos to Empire State Development for getting this right! What a moment it will be when this is lowered into place!
check out this link to images of the BP Pedestrian bridge in Millennium Park in Chicago.
www(dot)pbase(dot)com/tanakak/bpbridge
check out this link to images of the BP Pedestrian bridge in Millennium Park in Chicago.
www(dot)pbase(dot)com/tanakak/bpbridge
will there be a toll to cross it?
Another link to an image of a more "inspiring" pedestrian bridge. This one is in Bilbao.
http://archinect(dot)com/gallery/displayimage(dot)php?album=3&pos=428
Are you people serious?
Its a historic site using the original canal slip and a replica Whipple Truss bridge which was the offical brige design for the Erie canal:
http://www.whipple.org/photos/whipplebridge.html
So what the hell does the BP bridge have to do with anything here? Are we bitching to make a historic site non-historic?
David -
I think you're missing the point. This isn't just any pedestrian bridge, it is meant to anchor a historic site, over an original slip in the Erie Canal Terminus... hence it is a recreation of the original Erie Canal bridge that was once there. I don't disagree with you that there are cooler bridges out there, but the point of this site wasn't to create a signature pomo-architecture bridge.... it was to help recreate the look and feel of the terminus which was destroyed but which we as a city have decided to recreate.
I like our bridge better... that thing in Millennium park is ugly in the picture and in person... plus probably costs an arm and half a leg to fix if anything ever falls off of it.
It seems like we are constructing history and not respecting history. If we build a historical building only to accomodate the needs of a Fuddrucker's, are we respecting history? This all gets very muddy very quickly. I feel that we have an opportunity with every NEW piece that we introduce to the waterfront to make it awe-inspiring. This bridge is new, the buildings are new, the events are new. These are all opportunities and I feel that we shouldn't lock ourselves into these artificial historical constraints.
David,
You're quite right in point ing out that many times faux-history is an enormous mistake. But in this case, I don't know that it is entirely clear cut. If I'm not mistaken, when this site was originally excavated there was some plan for all new investment in some (probably half baked) development plan. But what they found was that the stone retaining walls of the original Canal Terminus slip were there. So citizens vocalized that we should develop a historical site around those original slip stones, in, of course a re-watered slip. Which is why we need a bridge, and which is why that bridge needs to be in the correct historical context. I think it would be a disaster to rewater the slip, show off our historic Erie Canal terminus (the gateway to the west and the linkage of grain and other resources from the midwest to the east), and have a titanium clad pomo-bridge crossing over the entire thing.
If this were being put up anywhere else, I might agree with you. For example, I'm in favor of a signature bridge crossing the Niagara River... no sense in recreating the Peace Bridge in my mind. But for this site, always intented to be a historical site, a period piece is needed, and a fine one it is!
Nice historic bridge for a historic site. (near silos, water slip, coble stone, old brick building areas).
Rochester has a nicely restored water front.
Though, I truly wish we had a modern beautiful BP bridge too. Maybe a few of them in the city over the 33 or 198 and one on the developed water front.
It seems as though a lot of people won't really understand exactly what's happening down there until it's completely done and we can see the finished product!
It's ironic that as the finishing touches are beginning to be seen on the ESDC project that the community fought so hard to make into an authentic, dare I say "iconic," public space, others are hard at work on bended knee giving the public space in that plan to Bass Pro for their out of scale bait shop and parking lots.
Actually, that bridge has a somewhat modern look
Speaking of Bass Pro...how's that mid January deadline going? According to Larry Quinn a couple of days before the deadline, he was quoted as saying "It may be extended a couple of days, but it will NOT be weeks or months".
Oh really Larry? Who do you think you are fooling?
Incredibly frustrated : I do want the area to be historically accurate, and to be so means there should not be a park or open land near it. There wasn't at the time and there shouldn't be now. Buffalo has enough open spaces already, what we need is density not grass.
I like it. I can't wait to see it!
Sally gets a lot of static here but for once she's right. Dump the knee-jerk, "green space" response to every urban design question. It is so 1950s.