Page 16 - Wire Rope News & Sling Technology - August 2018

Once the Largest Suspension Bridge in the World
The Wheeling Bridge Turns 170

by Peter Hildebrandt
If you walk across the Wheeling Suspension Bridge now, judging by today’s
standards, you may not be impressed by the span stretching beneath your feet.
But this structure over the Ohio River was at one time the largest suspension
bridge in the world; that record held from 1849 until 1851. The bridge’s builder
was Charles Ellet Jr. who also worked on the Niagara Suspension Bridge.

he Wheeling Suspension Bridge hard work and ingenuity of one of the the National Road – also known as the
was the first bridge to span a ma- greatest bridge builders in our history: Cumberland Pike because it began to
Tjor river west of the Appalachian Charles Ellet Jr. the east, in Cumberland, Maryland. The
Mountains. The new structure linked The main span is 1,010 feet long. From National Road formally reached Wheel-
eastern and western sections of the the east tower, which rises 153.5 feet ing on August 1, 1818, but passengers
National Road and played a particular- above the low-water level of the river on and freight had to be transported by
ly strategic role during the U.S. Civil the Wheeling shore, the bridge extends ferry to the other section of the National
War. Litigation in the United States to the west tower, 132.75 feet above the Road which began in Belmont and con-
Supreme Court concerning its obstruc- low water on Wheeling Island. tinued westward.
tion of the new high steamboat smoke- In 1820 Congress commissioned the
stacks eventually cleared the way for Thirty-three-year struggle to build clearing of navigation obstacles from
other bridges, especially needed by A charter was granted to the Wheel- the Ohio River, which flows from Pitts-
expanding railroads. But the bridge ing and Belmont Bridge Company in burgh down through Wheeling – then
still is used today, a testament to the 1816 to construct a bridge to extend continued on page 18

Wheeling Suspension Bridge at Night. Photo ©KennethKeifer | depositphotos

16 Wire Rope News & Sling Technology August 2018