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 RiverQuestion of the Monthfor June 2008Compiled by Jennifer Robertson, M.Ed.RiverQuest Education Specialist
Question:
Major renovations have taken place on the railroad bridge at mile 3.1 on the Monongahela River. Large colorful pipes that once carried utility lines have been removed from the sides. No longer sporting railroad tracks, the bridge has been converted to accommodate conventional motor vehicle traffic and a bicycle/pedestrian trail.
Why is it called the Hot Metal Bridge?
Answer:What we call the Hot Metal Bridge is actually two bridges that share a set of piers: the Monongahela Connecting Railroad Bridge and the Hot Metal Bridge. The Mon-Con RR Bridge sits on the upriver side and was the first of the two bridges. Built in the late 1800’s, it carried conventional railroad traffic first on one track and later on two tracks of the small Monongahela Connecting Railroad. The Mon-Con RR Bridge renovation was completed and the bridge re-opened for two lanes of motor vehicle traffic in 2000. Red, orange, and yellow decorative lights, symbolizing the hot metal that once crossed its sister bridge, were illuminated for the first time during a ceremony on June 12, 2008. The Hot Metal Bridge was built in the early 1900’s on extended piers of the Mon-Con RR Bridge. J & L Steel Mill (and after that LTV Steel Mill) used the bridge to deliver molten iron in open ladle cars from the Eliza Blast Furnaces on the north shore of the Monongahela River to the rolling steel mills on the south shore, eliminating the wasteful cooling and reheating of the iron. The bridge deck was lined with steel plates to prevent the molten iron from spilling into the river. The last hot metal crossed the bridge in 1979. After an extensive renovation, including the addition of ramps and a new truss over Second Avenue, the Hot Metal Bridge re-opened in November 2007 as a much-anticipated link between the Eliza Furnace and South Side pedestrian/bicycle trails. The Hot Metal Bridge is not the only bridge of its type in the area, or even on the Monongahela River. Approximately 6 miles upriver from Pittsburgh’s South Side, the Union Railroad hot metal bridge once carried molten steel in torpedo cars from the Carrie Blast Furnaces in Rankin across the Mon River to US Steel’s Homestead Works. This two-lane railroad bridge may soon play a part in the plan to turn a portion of the Carrie Furnace site into a national park.
Reader Comments:"In your story about the hot metal bridge you stated that steel plates were added to the deck of the bridge to prevent molten iron from falling into the river. At the time they added the plates there was little or no control of what was dumped into the river. All the waste from the mill went into the river untreated. The plates were added to help prevent the molten iron from setting fire to the railroad ties. A fire would delay steel production until the burned railroad ties were replaced." -Steve, Pittsburgh, PA
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