Liberty Bridge (Pittsburgh)

The Liberty Bridge is a steel cantilever bridge and was created as the missing link between downtown Pittsburgh and the Liberty Tunnel, which had been built four years earlier in 1924 as a link to the South Hills. The bridge opened on March 27, 1928, following a 5-mile (8.0 km) vehicle parade^[2] from the southern suburbs of the city, which crossed the Smithfield Street Bridge and proceeded through downtown before ending at the southern end of the new bridge.^[3][4]

It was designed by George S. Richardson and cost $3,456,000 to build. It is 2,663 feet 3⁄16 inch (811.687 m) long, the main span is 448 feet (137 m), and the water clearance is 44.4 feet (13.5 m).^{[citation needed]}

It was renovated in 1982 by the Dick Corporation, at a cost of $32 million.^{[citation needed]}

On September 2, 2016, the Liberty Bridge was closed for 24 days, following a fire during construction work on the bridge.^[5][6] Intense heat from burning plastic piping had caused a 30-foot (9 m) steel beam (compression chord) to buckle.^[7] The bridge reopened to weight-limited traffic on September 26, and full traffic on September 30. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation assessed the value of the damages at over $3 million.^[8]

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

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  The bridge five months after opening, from Bluff
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  Liberty bridge facing Downtown Pittsburgh
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  Underside in 2019
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  At night in 2025