Main Street Bridge

The Main Street Bridge is historic Pratt pony truss. It is one of the few early examples of iron Pratt truss bridges remaining in the United States and is among the oldest truss bridges in the country. There are two other similar bridges in New Jersey (the Glen Gardner Bridge and the New Hampton Bridge). However, this bridge is the longest of the three and is the only multi-span and only skewed bridge.

This bridge is also a rare example of a composite cast iron and wrought iron bridge. It utilizes cast iron for the compression members and chords and wrought iron for the tension members. This gives the bridge a complex appearance, but in reality, it is a simple pin-connected Pratt pony truss with vertical members. However, the detailing and design was done in a way to architecturally embellish the bridge. In fact, no additional decorations or embellishments were added apart from the bridge’s structural components. This was possible because the use of cast iron allowed the fabricator to shape the beams in any way they desired. This was unachievable with the wrought iron and steel beams that were used in later bridges. This is particularly evident on the top chord of the bridge, where the builder inscriptions were cast into the members instead of using a separate bridge plaque. The bridge also uses unique architectural embellishments such as square vertical iron end posts and hollow octagonal iron top tubes.