The Monaca–Rochester Bridge is a steel through continuous truss bridge

Continuous truss bridge

A continuous truss bridge is a truss bridge which extends without hinges or joints across three or more supports. A continuous truss bridge may use less material than a series of simple trusses because a continuous truss distributes live loads across all the spans; in a series of simple trusses,...

 which crosses the Ohio River

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

 between Monaca, Pennsylvania

Monaca, Pennsylvania

Monaca is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States along the Ohio River, northwest of Pittsburgh. Monaca was first incorporated as Phillipsburg in 1840, and had been known by that name since the 1820s. In 1892, the name of the borough was changed to Monaca in honor of the Native...

 and Rochester, Pennsylvania

Rochester, Pennsylvania

Rochester is a borough in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located northwest of Pittsburgh, it is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The population was 4,014 at the 2000 census....

. It opened in 1986 and is the third bridge to occupy the site. It replaced a 1930 steel truss cantilever bridge

Cantilever bridge

A cantilever bridge is a bridge built using cantilevers, structures that project horizontally into space, supported on only one end. For small footbridges, the cantilevers may be simple beams; however, large cantilever bridges designed to handle road or rail traffic use trusses built from...

 which itself replaced a suspension bridge

Suspension bridge

A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...

 built in 1896.

Naming tradition

The bridge is also called the Rochester–Monaca Bridge. From 1987 to 2009, the bridge was named each year in honor of the winner of the Rochester vs. Monaca high school football game. With Monaca High School's merger into Central Valley High School, the 2009 game was the final game to determine naming rights. By winning the 2009 game, the bridge will be known as the Rochester-Monca Bridge through the end of the school year. After that, it will be called the Rochester–Monaca Bridge on the Rochester side, and the Monaca-Rochester Bridge on the Monaca side.

External links

• Postcard images of the first two bridges
• 1930 essay commemorating the suspension bridge
• List of major continuous truss bridges