Preserving a Treasure
One of the few remaining bascule bridges in the Southeast is undergoing a two-year rehabilitation project.

By Deborah Petticord

            When the time came to reopen the riverfront at Ross’s Landing in Chattanooga last year after a $28 million redevelopment project was completed, the attention of the local population was redirected to the historic spot where the Trail of Tears began. The elegant Market Street Bridge looming over the festivities, although still graceful and functioning admirably, was showing her age, especially noticeable now that the gleaming modern addition to the Tennessee Aquarium stood alongside. But the disparity would soon dissolve.

            The bridge is now closed for the next two years, as SHE undergoes a $13 million renovation to provide not only a new skin but to secure her aged foundations as well. With all her symmetry and stately beauty above the water line, the bridge is unusually inconsistent below the surface, according to the photographs brought back by divers during the early stages of the project. Her seven piers are mysteriously mismatched and disorderly. The complications of flooding during construction and the lack of a solid foundation had caused each pier’s design to be altered soon after work began in 1914. One newspaper report recorded that on December 20, 1915, the falsework and reinforced forms on Span No. 3 were swept ten miles down river by a 28-foot flood surge. Eventually however, the engineers persevered and the city saw the project through to completion—the bridge endured into the next century.

The original design was created by the Scherzer Rolling Lift Bridge Company, and at the time of its opening in 1917, its 310-foot bascule made it the longest-spanned movable bridge in the world.

Although aging bascule bridges all over the world have typically been replaced with more modern designs, a few have been treasured for their artistry or to retain the romance of a city district. A good example is the Bridge of Lions in St. Augustine, Florida. Preservationists are currently working to rehabilitate the Mediterranean-style bascule bridge as part of its “America’s oldest city” heritage.

It is no small task to preserve and rehabilitate one of these historic bridges. Executive Director Kitty Henderson of the Historic Bridge Foundation says, “It takes enormous cooperation on the part of citizens.” A large cast of business owners, residents, architects, planners, city officials, engineers and builders had to first secure state funds and coordinate their efforts and enthusiasm to preserve Chattanooga’s Market Street Bridge.

Parsons Transportation of Memphis did the design; Qore Property Sciences did the preliminary site work and cooperated in community education efforts for the proposed renovation. The Ingram Group and the North Chattanooga Chamber worked with business owners to reduce the impact of closing the bridge. Volkert & Associates, a sub-contractor of Parsons, worked on the inspection and engineering. Construction began on the Market Street Bridge project in September 2005, and will continue through 2006. East Tennessee Mountain States Contractors is the builder on the project.

Qore Senior Vice President, Mac McCarley says, “People have worked together and it has been a super team effort. The planning has been meticulous.”

The $13 million price tag for the bridge renovation is to be paid for with Tennessee Department of Transportation funds and TDOT has been “extremely supportive” of efforts to minimize the negative effects of repairing the bridge. The interests of merchants in the Frazier Avenue shopping district have been addressed through activities planned and funds raised by the North Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. City Engineer Bill Payne has coordinated a host of events with the merchants groups including special parades and road races designed to bring shoppers back into the area on weekends. The Market Street Bridge has now been designated an official historic structure by the state of Tennessee.

Although motorists will not have wider lanes when the bridge is completed, pedestrians will have wider sidewalks, and the smoother surfaces will make for a safer passage across the broad Tennessee River. The bridge’s lovely obelisks will be cleaned and the broken chinks repaired and filled. Her elegant architecture and entire demeanor—one of endurance over time—will be preserved. Mainstream Commercial Divers’ Carlos Araya wrote about the Bridge in a recent article for Underwater Magazine. Araya was one of the first divers to investigate the foundations of the piers. What he found prompted him to investigate the history of the bridge. He wrote, “We no longer thought of her inconsistencies as flaws, but rather as modifications necessary for her birth and crucial to her survival into this century. The changes to her design mid-way through her construction are the marvels the rest of the world cannot see and we left feeling privileged to have been able to inspect them.”

If your group is working to save a bridge from demolition go online to www.historicbridgefoundation.com.

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