Roberto Clemente Bridge
| Roberto Clemente Bridge | |
| Sixth Street Bridge, Jensen's Bridge | |
| Suspension bridge | |
 The Bridge with PNC Park in the background.
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| Official name: Roberto Clemente Bridge | |
| Named for: Roberto Clemente | |
| Country | United States |
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| State | Pennsylvania |
| County | Allegheny |
| Municipality | Pittsburgh |
| Road | Sixth Street 2 lanes |
| - Sidewalks | Each side |
| Crosses | Allegheny River |
| Coordinates | 40°26′44.1594″N 80°0′11.8794″W / 40.445599833°N 80.003299833°WCoordinates: 40°26′44.1594″N 80°0′11.8794″W / 40.445599833°N 80.003299833°W |
| Length | 884 ft (269 m) |
| - Main span | 430 ft (131 m) |
| - Side spans | 430 ft (131 m) |
| Clearance | 78 ft (24 m) |
| - Navigational | 40.1 ft (12 m) |
| Number of spans | 3 |
| Design | Self-anchored suspension |
| Material | Steel |
 Location of the Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pennsylvania
Location of the Roberto Clemente Bridge in Pennsylvania
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The Roberto Clemente Bridge, also known as the Sixth Street Bridge, or Jensen's Bridge, spans the Allegheny River in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
In 1859, the first Sixth Street Bridge was built by John Roebling, who built this bridge as his third and final bridge in Pittsburgh. The original bridge had two main spans of 344 feet (105 m) with shore spans of 177 and 171 feet (54 and 52 m). The floors were suspended from wire hangers that were then suspended from wire catenaries. This bridge was demolished in 1892, as modern transportation rendered it too narrow and fragile.
In 1892, the second Sixth Street Bridge was built by an engineer named Theodore Cooper for the Union Bridge Company. The main spans were 440 feet (130 m) long, each having through trusses of the camel-back type with upward-angled upper chords, and were twice as wide as the previous bridge. In 1927 the bridge had to be taken apart because the steelwork was too brittle for safety. So in 1927, the main spans were somewhat trimmed down temporarily from their 80-foot (24 m) height which were then lowered onto barges and floated down the Ohio River to the back channel of Neville Island to become part of the Coraopolis Bridge. Finally in 1994 the steel was scrapped.
The current bridge was completed on September 29, 1928. It is one of the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges, which also include the 7th and 9th Street Bridges. The three bridges are nearly identical self-anchored, eye-bar suspension type, so called because the horizontal pull of the top cords is resisted by the steel girders along each side of the roadway. The suspension system consists of 14" eye-bars extending from end to end having two pins on the top of each tower and carrying the roadway by 4" eye-bar suspenders at the panel points. The stiffening system consists of triple web plate girders placed parallel to the road grade. The girders are thus subjected to stresses due to bending combined with direct compression. All three bridges were fabricated and erected by American Bridge (AB). In an innovative approach, AB turned the eye-bar catenary/deck girder system temporarily into a truss by adding a diagonal to enable erection by balance cantilever and avoiding falsework in the river.
Named for the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball player Roberto Clemente, it is one of three parallel bridges called The Three Sisters, the others being the Rachel Carson Bridge and the Andy Warhol Bridge. The Three Sisters are self-anchored suspension bridges and are significant because they are the only trio of nearly identical bridges—as well as the first self-anchored suspension spans—built in the United States. Over 720 bridges link the city districts.
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