With over 400 bridges, it’s no wonder Pittsburgh is called the City of Bridges. Due to the downtown topography, surrounded by rivers, bridges are a necessary way to connect neighborhoods and navigate the city. They have also become an iconic part of the city skyline. In fact, Pittsburgh has even more bridges than the city of Venice.
The three most popular bridges
Three bridges, in particular, are loved by the locals. Together, they are called the Three Sisters Bridges, and they span the Allegheny River between the center and the north side. The trio of bridges is named after the famous Pittsburghers: an athlete, an artist, and an environmentalist.
The Sixth Street Bridge, called the Roberto Clemente Bridge, is the closest to the Point and the PNC Park. Next is the Seventh Street Bridge, called the Andy Warhol Bridge, which runs near the Andy Warhol Museum. The Ninth Street Bridge, called the Rachel Carson Bridge, runs the closest to her hometown of Springdale. The bridges were built between 1924 and 1928.
The bridges are the only nearly identical trio of bridges in the United States, according to Library of Congress records. They are also the first self-anchored suspension spans in the nation. “The design of the bridges was a creative response to the political, commercial and aesthetic concerns of Pittsburgh in the 1920s,” according to documents from the Library of Congress.
In 1928, that design caught the attention of the American Institute of Steel Construction, which named the Clemente Bridge “The Most Beautiful Steel Bridge of 1928.”
Three sisters bridges in the modern day
Today bridges are often used for pedestrian and car traffic. On Pirates game days, the Clement Bridge is closed to vehicular traffic, giving pedestrians additional space to travel to and from the game at PNC Park. In the spring of 2015, bike lanes were added to the Clemente Bridge. The bike lanes feature a bicyclist wearing a Pirates baseball cap and a No. 21 jersey (Roberto Clemente’s number).
Clemente Bridge has also recently become the site of “love locks,” padlocks that couples place on bridges as a public display of their love. All three bridges are painted in the same iconic yellow, a shade called “Aztec gold” or “Pittsburgh yellow.”
Allegheny County rehabilitated all three bridges in 2015, including painting each bridge. A survey on the county’s website allowed residents to choose between a few options: keep the bridges yellow; paint the Warhol Bridge in silver / gray and the Carson Bridge in green; no matter the color, keep them all the same; Why limit voters to these colors?
With 11,000 responses, more than 83 percent voted to keep the yellow bridges, a view that the Post-Gazette editorial board seems to echo. His opinion: “A better question is” Why do you ask? «. There are two options: Yellow. Or Aztec gold.
