Looking north from our cruise ship as we passed under the Key Bridge. The key bridge carries the beltway (I-695) across the Patapsco River to complete the circuitous route around the city of Baltimore, Maryland. The bridge was opened in March 1977 and is named for the author of the Star Spangled Banner, Francis Scott Key. History scholars believe the span crosses within 100 yards (91 m) of the site, marked in the water off the bridge by a stars and striped painted buoy, where Francis Scott Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry on the evening of September 12, 1814.
The span is 1,200 feet (366 m) long and carries an estimated 11.5 million vehicles annually. It is a long span steel truss bridge with a suspended deck. The structure combines the behaviors of an arch, truss and cantilever. With no expansion joints, this bridge (at the time of this writing) is the second longest continuous steel truss bridge in the United States and the third longest in the world.
More information about this bridge can be found on Wikipedia and An Engineer's Guide to Baltimore.
1 comment:
A prize-winning photo!
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