Bird Island Pier - Table of Contents ......................... Buffalo Waterfront - Table of Contents

Bird Island Pier - Group 2 (Peace Bridge)
Buffalo, NY

The Peace Bridge was named to commemorate 100 years of peace between the United States and Canada. Construction began in 1925 and was completed in the spring of 1927. On June 1, 1927 the bridge was opened to the public.

TEXT (Beneath Illustrations)


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  • Electrical transmission tower (tall structure at left) supports power lines
  • Peace Bridge, including the Parker Truss

Peace Bridge, including the Parker Truss

Parker Truss


Note structure (backup water intake) in the Niagara River near the Peace Bridge

Reserve water intake near the Peace Bridge

 

Tall structure at in the middle of the photo supports power lines that span the Niagara River and are supported by an identical structure in Buffalo.

 

 

The Miss Buffalo II on its daily afternoon cruise

Looking north

Peace Bridge

The [Peace B]ridge, which took eleven months to complete, is 4,400 feet long and 9,000 tons of structural steel, all supplied by Lackawanna's Bethlehem Steel Company, were used in its construction. The breakwall (Bird Island Pier, , from which we view the bridge, is also the western wall of the Black Rock ship canal and the main span of the bridge crosses the canal at a height of 100 feet. The canal assists the movement of boats at this point because of swift and uncertain currents of the Niagara River as it passes over the Onondaga Escarpment.

When the western terminus of the Erie Canal was decided in favor of the village of Buffalo over the village of Black Rock, the Black Rock ship canal became an important element in getting canal boats to the safety of the Buffalo harbor.

- Peace Bridge by Lalli and Rote (online June 2014)

After the Peace Bridge was constructed, the trestles and supports for the bridge caused the current to flow through the river at a much faster rate, and the Black Rock Lock restricted the flow of water in Black Rock harbor. Both changes may have had an adverse effect on the fishing.

- Joseph Rennie, A Fisherman's View of the buffalo Waterfront and Niagara Rive  (online June 2014)


Photos and their arrangement © 2007 Chuck LaChiusa
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