Property Record
N 50th Place over Menomonee River
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | City Bridge 317 (P40-0658) |
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| Other Name: | |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 245697 |
| Location (Address): | N 50th Place over Menomonee River |
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| County: | Milwaukee |
| City: | Milwaukee |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | 7 |
| Range: | 21 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 26 |
| Quarter Section: | |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: |
| Year Built: | 1976 |
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| Additions: | |
| Survey Date: | 2023 |
| Historic Use: | |
| Architectural Style: | NA (unknown or not a building) |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Metal |
| Architect: | |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Not listed |
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| National Register Listing Date: | |
| State Register Listing Date: |
| Additional Information: | 2023: According to the Highway Structures Information System, P-40-0658 was originally constructed in 1976. The bridge is located at the end of North 50th Place south of the intersection with West State Street in the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County and trends north-south across the Menomonee River. According to the North 50th Pedestrian Bridge Fracture Critical Inspection (2016), the P-40-0658 was constructed as: "a temporary structure south of the intersection of North 50th Place and West State between West State Street and Doyne Park. …The bridge was a temporary structure used by a concrete ready-mix plant and served as a relief outlet when trains obstructed the private access road to W. State Street. That plant is no longer occupying the parcel and the bridge has been closed to both pedestrian and vehicular traffic with a precast barricade and steel fence." Bailey truss bridges were developed during World War II. P-40-0658 is a double truss, single story Bailey bridge with spans consisting of paired steel trusses. These are composed of modular X-shaped panels, referred to as Bailey panels, designed to be portable, quick to construct, and adjustable. The four truss members – two for each span – consist of seven pairs of 10-foot Bailey panels. The Bailey panels are prefabricated with vertical and diagonal members fillet welded on either side of gusset plates. The individual panels are connected end to end by pins through the upper and bottom chords. The paired trusses are braced laterally with internal diagonal flanges, or raker, bolted to the truss members and transoms and with brace framing that is bolted to the upper chord of each panel pair. The outermost panels are pinned to vertical end posts. The superstructure is a sill fixed spread footing with bearings. Longitudinal steel stringers span the underside of the bridge and are supported by lateral steel floor beams which are referred to as transoms in Bailey truss bridges. The transoms thread through the double trusses and are adjoined to the bottom chords with transom clamps. Sway braces, consisting of diagonal tie rods, connect to the interior bottom chords below each panel section. The decking consists of lateral wood plank floor beams laid perpendicular to the steel stringers. Supported by the floor beams, timber stringers serve as the wear tread and run longitudinally between the trusses with gravel aggregate laid in the center. Steel rails, the ribband, is installed along the outer edges of the timber stringers, running the length of the bridge. The north and south banks of the Menomonee River are retained by random ashlar stone embankments or retaining walls. The substructure of the bridge consists of a reinforced concrete abutments set atop the north and south river embankments. As the bridge is no longer in use, the north approach to the bridge has been barricaded with a concrete barrier. The south approach remains open. |
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| Bibliographic References: | Files and Construction records, “P-40-0658”, Highway Structures Information System (HSI). Holth, Nathan. “An Introduction to Historic Bridges.” HistoricBridges.org |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |