Philadelphia+South+Street+Bridge

The Philadelphia South Street Bridge, originally built in 1923, has been an evolving part of the cities landscape; its changes have come as a result of changes in demand for different modes of transportation in a rapidly growing city. Built to be utilized by citizens on foot, serve as a drawbridge for cargo ships, or by the horse drawn carriages, the bridge has evolved to accommodate 23,000 cars daily. The bridge design itself has changed, with the technology that has come with it. Now the bridge is undergoing another upgrade to equally balance the ever expanding amount of cars, humans, and bikes that traverse its path every day. The South Street Bridge is a prime example of technology changing in history. The original concept of the bridge arose in 1866 when a few of the cities commissioners realized the need for a bridge to connect the southwestern most quadrant of Center City to the western side of the Schuylkill. While many people in the city would have liked to have these two major parts of the city connected, it was not the reason that the bridge was funded. The Schuylkill had been a major hub for vessels at the time, the river was often filled with ships and there was lots of traffic congestion going in and out of the Schuylkill. The original budget was set at $250,000 dollars was refused because contractors said that it would be much more expensive. After much negotiation, the bridge budget was set at $600,000 dollars. The original design of the bridge took approximately 10 years to build. The bridge was designed for horse drawn carriages to get across the Schuylkill to help promote economic growth all over the city and provide as a filter to help regulate the flow of traffic into the Philadelphia-Schuylkill hub. The design of the bridge seems very modern for the time period; it appears to be mostly iron and stone, with concrete foundations. The bridge was square in design and featured arches at the extremities. Unfortunately this bridge did not last. It did a poor job regulating the traffic; it was filtering the amount of vessels that could come through at a time, but there was no traffic conductor. As portrayed in the picture “Jamming of the Vessels” you can see how the boats became tangled and congested at the bridge. After $600,000 dollars spent and 10 years of building, the bridge ultimately failed and collapsed into the Schuylkill River. The original South Street Bridge was replaced by a temporary wooden bridge that was put in place so that people could still commute in and out of South Philadelphia from West Philadelphia. This wooden bridge took the place of a more permanent bridge till 1923; for more then 40 years a wooden bridge provided accommodations for the population of Philadelphia that commuted across the river at this road. With new citizens arriving by boat, this period of time represents a Philadelphia traversed mainly by foot and carriage. It was not until the mass production of motor vehicles that a need for a permanent bridge to replace the wooden bridge was realized, however, the automobile did not become the major user of the bridge till the early 1950’s. The 1923 South Street Bridge featured a drawbridge, control towers, and rails for streetcars. Street cars were a very popular means of transportation; many people started giving up on horse drawn carriages and started using the street cars for transportation across sections of the city. West Philadelphia had previously been a mix of suburban development and farmland, but city officials used the bridges and street cars to transform West Philadelphia into one of the most widely popular middle class suburban developments. By the mid 1930s thousands of west Philadelphia residents were commuting into Center City via street cars. The South Street Bridge designers adapted to the demand by lining the bridge with street car rails and installing guard rails along the sidewalk for pedestrians, in case one of the trolleys jumped a track. These changes to the bridge represented the technological change from transportation by horse and foot, to streetcar and foot. By the 1950’s many highways and expressways had been built to keep up with the popularity of owning an automobile and to help keep up with the economic boom. The development of highways and expressways led to a population boom in Philadelphia. Americans were now traveling between states and across the cities in cars. In the mid 1950’s even more work was done on the bridge to keep up with the ever changing demand for modes of transportation. Because of the attachment of the Schuylkill expressway to South Street, the bridge became almost immediately more popular. The heavy use of the South Street Bridge by cars prompted city officials to pave the road because the mixture of a cobbled path and the rails made it an uncomfortable ride. At this time very few ships were still coming through the Schuylkill River and most cargo ship deliveries were being made to the Delaware River and transported via truck into the city. Ultimately, as part of the paving processes, the drawbridge mechanisms were paved over because they were no longer necessary and the bridge control towers were abandoned. As time passed, it was apparent that the bridge had heavily evolved; most of the features of the original design had now become outdated. The drawbridge was sealed off, and the control towers had been removed due to the old concrete falling apart. There were now extended sidewalks and two lanes on either side to support more car traffic. Tight city budget was the reason behind not formally rebuilding the bridge, so applying mostly temporary solutions was their only option. Until recently, the bridge remained this way, having only added a few new features, such as brighter street lights, bike lanes, and a patchwork of repaved areas. These new additions served the public well, however these temporary solutions were not always made with the people at mind. The bike lanes and side walks were very narrow; often chunks of the bridge would fall into the Schuylkill Expressway and into the river, these conditions have posed as a hazard towards the public for years. Handling about 23,000 cars daily, the decision to evolve the bridge again couldn’t have come at a better time. The green movement, modern architecture, and a harmonious clash between cars, bikes, and pedestrians have given bridge designers a view of what the new South Street Bridge should look like. Construction of the new South Street Bridge started December 8th, 2008. After serving 83 years, and for half its life, traffic it was never meant to handle, the South Street Bridge was taken down to make way for the new design. Jim Campbell, lead architect and head of the South Street Bridge Coalition, has a vision of the ultimate modern day bridge. With a budget of $67 million dollars, he plans to create a bridge that will “Give Philadelphians something to be proud of and look forward to using”. The design has been ever evolving; the designer has paid special attention to residents of Philadelphia and their requirements of the bridge. The focus of the bridge has been to provide a great looking bridge that is eco-friendly, draws lots of pedestrians, and provides safe transportation to cars, bikes, and pedestrians. The coalition did research on the pedestrian and bike usage within the city and found that the amount of bikes on the road have significantly grown every year over the past 18 years; from 2005 to 2006 alone, the amount of bikes grew 24 percent. The new bridge will take all the researched data into consideration. There will now be a median between the road and the bike lane, and there will be streetlights to illuminate both the roadside and the bike lanes and sidewalk. The bridge design has a very modern look; the median will be transparent to allow more natural lighting, also, the design will consist of lots of sharp lines along the edges; the bridge will also be outlined with lights to make it stand out among the bridges crossing the Schuylkill River. All of these design considerations point to a more important theme, the changes required, and the $67 million dollars spent, represent a necessary shift in design to keep up with modern technologies. The location of the South Street Bridge gives it arguably the best view of the Philadelphia skyline. Now, this view will also be from a location that matches it five-star view. Changes in the use of technology have necessitated the change in design, and the ultimate construction of the new bridge. In the new design we can see that the importance of bikes, they have dominated most of the changes coming to the bridge, but what could this mean for the future? Technological innovations today might mean the future of the bridge; the new changes to the bridge show how we adapt our designs to the popular trends today, but I think we should be planning today’s construction for tomorrow’s trends. Some of the trends of the future that could be incorporated into today’s architectural designs are energy efficiency, solar panels, pressure sensitive roads, wireless hotspots, etc. All of these technologies could help shape and steer technological incorporations in building designs. Changes in transportation trends can be seen in the South Street Bridge, and I am sure that it will be in continually evolving part of the cities landscape as a prime example of technology changing in history.

__**Resources**__ 1. Campbell, Jim. "South Street Bridge Coalition." __Welcome to Salsa!__ 09 June 2009 . 2. Maule, R. Bradley. "Phillyskyline.com | SOUTH STREET BRIDGE." __Phillyskyline.com | yo__. 09 June 2009 . 3. "South Street Bridge, Commissioners for the Erection of the." __PHILA.GOV | Welcome to the City of Philadelphia__. 09 June 2009 . 4. Ujifusa, Steven. "South Street Bridge saga | Plan Philly: Planning Philadelphia's Future." __Plan Philly: Planning Philadelphia's Future | Planning Philadelphia's Future__. 14 July 2008. 09 June 2009 .