Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008 - (Page 53)

constructed between 1975 and 1983 One of the last significant steel in 1914. This steel through truss vertical lift (delays during construction were caused by cantilever truss bridges in the U.S. is the bridge is on the National Register of defects in early cables). In a cable-stayed Gramercy or Veterans Memorial Bridge. Historic Places. It crosses a narrow section bridge, the bridge deck is supported by Completed in 1995 with a main span of of the lake and is composed of seven spans cables that are hung and anchored from 1,459 feet, the bridge is something of an resting on concrete piers. Although no pylons or towers. The cables provide anomaly because most bridges of longer in operation, when it was built the resistance and the bridge behaves better in comparable length by this time were cablethird span lifted vertically through its stayed. Unlike the complex and interlocking high winds than does a suspension bridge, slender metal tower so that massive oil which has more drilling equipment could deflections. This bridge’s pass through to the oil rigs plain A-framed steel pylons in Caddo Lake. reach 400 feet in height — A splendid grouping of a powerful vertical force — three metal bridges can be and the taut steel cables seen at Morgan City. and hanging deck are Crossing the Atchafalaya outlined against the River to Berwick is a threehorizon. The 1,225-foot arched K-truss bridge span appears to hover carrying Louisiana Highway lightly over the river. Like 182, which stands next to the Huey Long Bridge, this the Long-Allen Bridge (U.S. bridge’s approach Highway 90) with a 608 structures contribute to the foot long steel Warren architectural experience. through truss. Slightly Here sinuous access roads farther downstream is a Ovoid piers support the Texas Street Bridge, circa 1934, curl over the flat landscape railway drop bridge, circa connecting Shreveport and Bossier City. and the ascent and 1911, with a gently curved crossing are a spellbinding arch. celebration of passage. The 1930s was a highly productive Another cable-stayed bridge for period for bridge construction and many of Louisiana is now under construction across bridges of that era were named for the Mississippi River to link New Roads to governors Huey Long and O.K. Allen under St. Francisville. It will be the longest cablewhose administrations they were built. One stayed bridge in the nation with a main is the Rigolets Bridge (U.S. Highway 90) span of 1,583 feet. So although demolitions that spans the deep channel linking Lake or “improvements” have lost us some of Borgne with Lake Pontchartrain at a mere the state’s handsome historic bridges, the 14 feet above the water. Recently, a new new cable-stayed types have added to the bridge, 720 feet high to give clearance for fusion of technology and shipping, has replaced the art that bridges represent. historic swing bridge just to Opened in 1930, the Rigolets Cities like Pittsburgh its north. But the new Bridge became obsolete with and San Francisco might be bridge can’t replace the the completion of a modern elevated span in January 2008. renowned for their bridges, grace of the older one with but few states can compete its skeletal rhythm of steel with Louisiana for the sheer trusses and the four curved pleasure of crossing water arches that strike a on an infinite variety and silhouette against the sky. shapes and sizes of bridges. Reflected in the smooth From the little concrete water, the bridge makes the arched art deco bridges of connection between sea New Orleans’ City Park, to and sky, as well as with land. the truss bridges of Morgan Opened in 1930, the City, to the monster High Rigolets Bridge became a Rise of I-10 over the gateway to the Northshore Industrial Canal, and to the and the Gulf Coast from beauty of the cable-stayed New Orleans. structures, Louisiana can The idea of a bridge as hardly be matched. steel framework of a truss bridge, a cablegateway, of a journey, of possibilities, a leap stayed bridge is the most austere and into the unknown, is embodied in the elegant of forms. several phrases that use the imagery — Because of its many waterways, Louisiana is a treasure trove for the architecture of bridges. “building bridges,” “I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it,” or, less happily, “to burn one’s bridges.” A bridge can be a metaphor for passage, a connection or break between past and present. The splendid cable-stayed Hale Boggs Bridge (also known as the Luling Bridge) that links Luling and Taft was one of the earliest to be built in the United States. Designed by Modjeski and Masters, it was Karen Kingsley, Ph.D., is professor emerita of architecture at Tulane University, author of Buildings of Louisiana (2003, Oxford University Press), and a free lance writer. Winter 2008-09/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 53

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008 Contents Friends Editor's Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Prospect.1 New Orleans The Historic New Orleans Collection The Enduring Performance of Michael P. Smith Jazz Notes Louisiana Foodways Birds of a Feather: Windfowl Carvings in Southeast Louisiana Louisiana Association of Museums Louisiana Architecture O. Winston Link in Louisiana The Ogden Museum of Southern Art The Colfax Massacre Louisiana State Museum Unlocking the History of Greek Key Architecture Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.