[PRCo] Early bridge proposals

[Fred Schneider]

I'm not going to type this because it didn't happen, or should I say it did not occur for 24 more years.   Here is a proposal for two new bridges across the Monongahela River in 1935, one from Barbeau Street and the other called the Fort Duquesne Bridge, on the same alignment as the Point Bridge that would lead into a vehicular tunnel through Mount Washington.   

Sometimes it just takes a while to make things happen.   In this case a huge infusion of federal money from the 1954 stimulus package called the Interstate Highway Program may be what helped to build the tunnel?   Someone would need to research that.   Remember that the turnpike wasn't even announced yet in 1935 and the Parkway east was built as a connection to the 1951extension (August 7) from Irwin to Pittsburgh.  

If you google Penn Lincoln Parkway, you will find all manner of interesting stuff on line showing proposals all through the 1930s and 1940s to create boulevards, parkways and expressways to get the US 22 and US 30 traffic off the city streets.

But this may be one of the opening guns.   Interesting reading for anyone into Pittsburgh history.


http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZHEbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kksEAAAAIBAJ&pg=1296%2C3686104