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Famous "Howe Truss" Train Trestle
Don't miss the beautiful LED light show every evening from Dusk to Dawn
The light project was installed by Longview Lights in June of 2018 and unveiled that year on the 4th of July to over 1,500 people
Our bridge was built in 1897 by the Phoenix Bridge Company in Phoenixville, PA and installed in Jefferson in 1907.
Howe truss is a type of bridge design that was introduced by an American architect William Howe.
It utilizes similar design such as Pratt truss, but with a strong difference. Here the diagonal structural beams slope toward the bridge center, while Pratt truss utilizes diagonal beams that slope outward from the center of the bridge. This approach makes diagonal members of Howe truss bridge in compression, while vertical web members are in tension.
William Howe was born in Spencer, Massachusetts, on May 12, 1803. After working as an apprentice in his father’s sawmill, he enrolled and graduated as an engineer at Leicester Academy in Leicester, Massachusetts. After several years of buildings homes and churches, in 1840 he managed to finally focus on his dream projects – building bridges. That same year he designed his first railroad bridge over the Connecticut River utilizing never before seen truss design that he devised. This Howe Design was purchased by his employer Amasa Stone for exclusive use in New England, where he created hundreds of bridges with this design approach. Howe made numerous smaller improvements to his design and patented them under new Howe Truss design in 1846.
William Howe died suffering wounds from carriage accident on September 19, 1852. *
Railroad - Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) , Texas & Pacific Railway (T&P)
Design - 5-panel Howe through truss
Approximate latitude, longitude +32.75571, -94.34196 (decimal degrees), 32°45'21" N, 94°20'31" W (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates 15/374290/3625001 (zone/easting/northing) **
*http://www.historyofbridges.com/facts-about-bridges/howe-truss/
