Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles
west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that
carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a
fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the
traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in
suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City,
this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s
the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby
vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to
be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct.
Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the
Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans
area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P.
Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Governor of the State from
1928 to 1932, then as US Senator from 1932 until his death by assassination at
the state capitol in Baton Rouge on September 10, 1935. One of Long’s greatest
contributions to the state was his advocacy for investment in infrastructure
across the state of Louisiana, with thousands of miles of paved roads and
bridges being built throughout the state in the years during and immediately
following his administration.
Planning for this project evolved from nearly 100 years of discussions
led by the local railroad industry to construct a bridge across the Mississippi
in the New Orleans area. It was not until the early 20th Century
that technologies had advanced to the point where a large-scale bridge could be
built across such a high-volume body of water to serve the heavy loads of railroad
traffic and it was during this period that potential locations for the bridge
were studied. In addition to a site upriver from Nine Mile Point west of New
Orleans, multiple locations further downriver in town were looked at, however
the Nine Mile Point (named for the sharp bend in the river about nine river
miles upriver from Jackson Square) location, about 105 river miles upstream
from the mouth of the great river at the Head of Passes Light, was ultimately
chosen. While the site chosen appears counterintuitive given its location relative
to the populated center of region at the time, it’s important to understand another
significant factor: this project was conceived originally as a bridge solely
for railroad traffic. The placement of the bridge was intentional in that it
was advantageous to the region’s railroad industry. The most significant railroad
infrastructure at the time, including the largest railyards and exchange points,
were located west of the city center on the east bank of the river. By building
the bridge in this area, it became much easier for the region’s railroads to
access both sides of the river from their regional hubs in Jefferson Parish.
The idea of adding capacity for vehicle traffic was a late
decision and to some extent, this was evident in the structure that was built. Borrowing
from the appearance of the Harahan Bridge further north on the Mississippi
River in Memphis, this bridge featured a roadway layout where the space for
vehicle traffic was cantilevered outside the main steel superstructure,
creating an awkward visual that was not functionally ideal, even in the years
of the Great Depression. It was through Gov. Huey Long’s intervention in the
planning process that these roadways were forcibly added to the project, so it
is fair to say that he had a significant role in the location and design of the
bridge that bears his name.
Huey P. Long (1893-1935)
Construction of the bridge began in 1932 and was completed in December 1935 at an initial cost of $13 million. The immense railroad component structure, owned by the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad and including the trestle approaches on each side of the river, remains largely unchanged since its initial construction. At an impressive 4 ½ miles long, this length is mandated by the maximum 1.25% grade for heavy railroad tracks and the bridge’s deck height of 150 ft above mean river level. By itself, it’s one of the longest railroad bridges in Louisiana and would be seen as an engineering marvel even without the addition and complication of the adjoining roadway elements. It is common for drivers on the bridge to view passing trains on the tracks above and this bridge has been a popular railfan location for many years. Due to the length of the bridge and the slow speeds that trains must travel at when crossing, it takes at least 15 minutes for any one train to fully transit the structure.
Each
roadway initially carried two lanes for traffic in each direction. The travel
lanes were no wider than 9 ft and there was no space dedicated for pedestrians
on the bridge. The length of the roadways was initially about 1 ½ miles and
there were no emergency shoulders along that stretch, which made for a
hazardous drive that became antiquated not long after it entered service. These
dangers were always present during its first 75 years of operation and old
timers in the area often speak about the hair-raising experience of traversing
the structure in heavy traffic. While the bridge was a huge success for railroad
interests, it left much to be desired from a roadway transport perspective, as
the city of New Orleans continued to lack a bridge of its own to accommodate the
growing vehicle traffic demands in the already-developed areas of the region. A
project to address this deficiency was finally planned in the years after World
War II and would be constructed in the 1950s as the Greater New Orleans Bridge (today known as the Crescent City Connection).
These construction photos showcase the superstructure strengthening and widening work undertaken on the Huey P. Long Bridge at the height of the long-term reconstruction project that remade the bridge into a modern facility for all modes of transport. (Images courtesy of Traylor Bros., Inc.)
The operational concerns caused by the functionally obsolete
layout of the Huey P. Long Bridge’s roadways were finally addressed in a
landmark reconstruction project that sought to modernize the existing bridge
while expanding its roadway infrastructure in a manner that largely preserved
its historic profile. Construction of this expansion project was carried out in phases,
beginning in 2006 and ending in 2013 at a total cost of $1.2 billion. As the
work on the project commenced in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina,
the project was seen by many as a symbol of the rebirth and recovery of
southeast Louisiana in the wake of the worst natural disaster in the state’s
history.
In order to accommodate the wider superstructure planned as
the focal point of the project, the bridge’s main span foundations were deepened
and widened to support the forthcoming heavier loads. The main span piers were
widened to support the additional connections on the flanks of the existing
superstructure. Central to the bridge’s reconstruction was the revamping of the
original steel cantilever truss. This massive element, featuring an overall
length of about ½ mile and a longest span of 790 ft, was strengthened and
widened by the addition of pre-fabricated steel frames and trusses that were
assembled on barges near the project site. These trusses, which when pre-assembled were the size
and length of an entire bridge span, were hoisted into position on the widened
bridge piers using hydraulic jacks. A large percentage of the work was
performed off-site in the pre-fabrication stage and the reduced on-site work
time enabled the bridge to remain open and functional throughout the reconstruction.
The bridge’s roadway approaches were also completely replaced with new structures that featured gentler grades and shallower curves. Each direction
of US Highway 90 traffic now features three modern-width lanes with full emergency
shoulders along the length of the bridge. The original dedication plates from
1935 that stood at the portals to the bridge's roadways were relocated to the portals of
the main span superstructure and remain visible today. It was a landmark
project that was an enormous success locally and an example of how our existing
and aging bridges can be re-imagined and modernized in-place without the
headaches of having to deal with full-scale replacement.
Further Reading:
Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans) by John Weeks
Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans) at historicbridges.org
Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans) at Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans
Bridges, Crossings, and Structures of the Lower Mississippi River
Next Crossing upriver: Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge (Luling, LA)
Next Crossing downriver: Crescent City Connection Bridge (New Orleans, LA)
Return to the Bridges of the Lower Mississippi River Home Page
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Big Boy steam locomotive crossing the Huey P Long Bridge in 2021