by Jerome a Paris
Wed Dec 28th, 2005 at 06:32:25 PM EST
PeWi hasn't been around for a while, but s/he is missed, and even more so the regular Bridge Blogging. I've been taking advantage of this holiday week to sift through an amazing book I bought myself a couple years back (yes, how geeky), the Spans of North America, by David Plowden, and that book pointed me (among many others) to the world's oldest stone railroad span still in service, the Thomas Viaduct. Update [2005-12-29 15:44:5 by Jerome a Paris]: This claim of being the oldest is apparently erroneous. See the comments below, thanks to DoDo.

Back then, in 1835, it was the first multispan railroad masonry bridge in America. It has a 4 degree curvature which makes for impressive pictures:

Here's one of its 8 spans:

The pictures come from this page created by Curtis Flippin with the help of Lighthouse Publishing, which has more pictures and some interesting explanations. I especially enjoyed the tidbit that the bridge cost USD $142,236.51 to build...
More info here from structurae.
Previous Bridge Blogging (by PeWi, unless indicated otherwise):
Calatrava's Twisted Mind (by DoDo (Dec. 1)
wobbly(Nov. 3)
parallel lines(Oct. 27)
Galloping Gertie(Oct. 19)
animal bridges(Oct. 13)
Remagen(Oct. 6)
transporter bridge in Middlesbrough (Sept. 29)
Lyonel Feininger edition(Sept. 22)
Activities on Brooklyn Bridge (Sept 15th)
Bridge of Alcántara (Sept 8th)
Tyne Swing Bridge(Sept 1st)
Muengstener Bruecke (Aug 25th)
Mostar Bridge (Aug 18th)