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Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge

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2002, Christian Menn, engineer.
  • Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge (Peter Vanderwarker or Antonina Smith)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Robert S. Salzar)

One highly visible icon has emerged from the Big Dig project. The new bridge (the name itself a compromise between the civil rights activist and the Charlestown landmark) may be considered as a symbol of the beginning of the new millennium. Cited as the widest cable-stayed bridge (load-bearing, radiating from masts to support points on its deck), its 1,500-foot-long main span is of steel, with concrete in the back spans; there is a 700-foot span between the two towers. Inverted Y-shaped towers support 116 cables that anchor the span of the ten-lane bridge to land-based back spans. But, alas, the bridge is only a visual tour-de-force, for vehicles only, connecting the new freeway running under downtown Boston to Charlestown and the north: the bridge at the end of the tunnel.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Data

What's Nearby

Hoffman Building/Registry of Motor Vehicles (W. F. Schrafft and Sons)
O'Neill Federal Building
TD Banknorth Garden
Town Hill District
Roughan Hall

Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge", [Boston, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-WF5.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 79-79.

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