For those who've never seen it, the Huey Long is a major highway bridge with two or three lanes of traffic in each direction, no shoulder, no guard rail to speak of, and a railroad main line running right down the center at traffic level between the two directions of traffic.
Who is Huey Long and why does he have his own bridge?
Huey P. Long was a Senator from Louisiana in the late '20s and Governor of Louisiana in the '30s. He ran the state with an iron fist, was known as the Kingfish, and was considering running for President in 1935 when he was assassinated. He was responsible for over 100 bridges being built, including this one which was later given his name.
when he became Governor, there were only three major highway bridges in the entire state of Lousiana. Long was responsible for 111 more, including the one bearing his name, the first bridge over the lower Mississippi. And, if it wasn't already clear, this bridge is LONG (not just in name, but in length, and also extremely high up above the river; and it feels like a roller coaster, because it's not flat--you go up for half, and then down for half).
Wikipedia being wikipedia, there are several things wrong with this article.
By definition, the Lower Mississippi begins at the junction between the Mississippis River and the Ohio River just below Cairo, Illinois. Despite the Upper Mississippi having a larger drainage basin than the Ohio, about 2/3 of the flow at that point is from the Ohio River side and only 1/3 from the Upper Mississippi River side. Above this point the channel location is fairly stable. Below this point the channel meanders, changes, makes cut-offs, and is considerably deeper and wider that the river above this point. In the 19th century it was regarded as essentially un-bridgeable. There was also the liklihood that if a bridge was built the river channel would move, cutting off one of the approaches and leaving you with a bridge over dry land.
The first bridge across the Lower River was and is the Frisco Bridge at Memphis. It was opened in 1892. At the time it was the longest span cantilever style bridge in the country, if not the world. It was also the first all steel bridge. (It was common at the time to use wrought iron for compression members in truss bridges.) Due to the presence of the high and solid clay Chickasaw Bluffs this was and is a stable point in the channel. It is single track railroad bridge that was originally decked level with the rails so it could be used by wagons between trains. It was built with 23 feet between railings so wagons could meet. It is today owned by BNSF and, with a 25 mph speed limit, is operated without clearance or weigth restrictions other than prohibion of strings of short ore cars. At the time it was built, the city of Memphis dedicated a street called Railroad Avenue that met the end of the bridge so that each railroad operating into Memphis could built a track up to the bridge. The last passenger train went across this bridge in December 1967.
The second bridge across the Lower River was and is the Harahan Bridge at Memphis. It was opened in 1916. This bridge is a couple hundred feet north of the Frisco Bridge, located to be on the same stable point, and also to line up with the tracks in Railroad Avenue. (Don't look to drive on this street. There is no street as such, only the tracks.) This brige has two tracks through the trusses with cantilevered roadways outside the trusses, one on each side similar to what you see on the HPL bridge. After its opening it was used by all railroads accessing Memphis from the west other than the Frisco. These were St. Louis Iron Mountain and Southern, later to be part of Missouri Pacific, St. Louis Southwestern (also know as the Cotton Belt), and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, all remaining portions in the area now taken over by UP. It is today owned by Union Pacific and, with a 20 mph speed limit, is operated without clearance or weight restrictions. The roadways were only 14 feet wide and were closed after a parallel 4-lane highway bridge located just south of the Frisco Bridge was opened in 1949. It's last5 passenger train was in something like 1965 or 1966.
The Frisco Bridge remained the southernmost bridge across the river until 1930.
The third bridge across the Lower River was and is the Vicksburg Bridge at Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was opened in 1930. Again the location was determined by the location of a stable point in the channel due to the bluffs at Vicksburg. The bridge has a single track and a two lane roadway, both located inside the truss. It was built as a private venture based in part on a 999 year lease by the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (later taken over by Illinois Central). The bridge was later sold to Warren County, Mississippi, who currently owns it. The railroad lease is now in the hands of Kansas City Southern. I do not know the current speed limit. For a long time under ICRR it was 10 mph which was track based, not structure based, but I believe that it is now 25 mph. The roadway was closed sometime after the opening of the parallel Interstate 80 bridge in 1980. This bridge can be easily viewed from the Mississippi end from the Mississippi Welcome Center that is at exit 1 on I-80.
Now we get to HPL.
The fourth bridge across the Lower River was and is the Huey P. Long Bridge at New Orleans. It was opened in 1935. How the location was selectied, I do not know. It was built under a bond issue and is owned by the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. It is very similar in concept to the 1916 Harahan Bridge. Two tracks inside the truss and two lane roadways cantilevered out one on each side. The initial using railroads were Southern Pacific and Texas and Pacific. Now they are BNSF on the SP route and UP on the T&P route. This is the only bridge still having any passenger trains running on it. For many years this was the world's longest railroad bridge, something around 5 miles end to end. So far as I know, it is still number 2, with the longest railroad bridge now being the 90 mile plus long viaduct on the southern half of the Taiwan High Speed Railway. For lines carrying freight, it is probably still the world's longest. Currently under construction is a widening of the main river piers and an additional line of trusses on each side so that in a couple of years there will be a three lane roadway on each side, with one side of each roadway supported by a new truss line on one side and the 1935 built railroad truss on the other side. See
http://www.timedla.com/bridge/long/overview/ for discussion and some views of what is being done.
The fifth bridge across the river is also named the Huey P. Long Bridge and is at Baton Rouge LA. It was opened in 1940. I know less about this one. It is also of the same concept as the Harahan Bridge, only there is only one track inside the truss. The original railroad users were Missouri Pacific's Gulf Coast Lines and KCS's Louisiana and Arkansas. The main railroad user is now KCS, but I believe that UP still uses it to access Baton Rouge.
The first all-highway bridge across the Lower River was at Greenville, Mississippi, and I believe it was opened in 1940.
