engineering

Northampton Street Bridge

Northampton Street Bridge is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Northampton Street Bridge rather than just read about it. In short: The Northampton Street Bridge is a bridge that crosses the Delaware River, connecting Easton, Pennsylvania, and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, United States. It is maintained by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission despite not being a toll bridge.

Key takeaways

Northampton Street Bridge belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Northampton Street Bridge to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Northampton Street Bridge from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Northampton Street Bridge is a bridge that crosses the Delaware River, connecting Easton, Pennsylvania, and Phillipsburg, New Jersey, United States. It is maintained by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission despite not being a toll bridge. It is known locally as the "Free Bridge" thus distinguishing it from the Easton–Phillipsburg Toll Bridge just upstream to the north. The crossing was first a ferry crossing run by David Martin, beginning in 1739. The original wooden bridge opened on October 14, 1806. The original bridge was designed and built by Timothy Palmer, one of the most famous bridge builders of his time. Palmer's covered bridge at Easton endured many floods and storms while other bridges fell. However, by the late nineteenth century, when horse-drawn streetcars were replaced by trolley cars, the old wooden bridge could no longer handle the demands of traffic and a new structure was erected in 1895. The new bridge was designed by James Madison Porter III, an alumnus of nearby Lafayette College and later a professor of civil engineering there. Porter hailed from a family long prominent in Easton and Pennsylvania history. Tolls were charged until 1921, when the DRJTBC bought it from the Delaware Bridge Company. The bridge is currently posted for a 3-short-ton (2.7 t) weight limit and a 15-mile-per-hour (24 km/h) speed limit. Noted as "combining aesthetics with economical design", the bridge was designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers and commemorated in 1995.

History

1955 damage Flooding from Hurricanes Connie and Diane in August 1955 ravaged the Delaware River valley. During the flooding, four bridges sustained serious damage or were washed away. The Portland–Columbia Covered Bridge, the Point Pleasant–Byram Bridge, and the Yardley–Wilburtha Bridge had all or most of their spans washed away. At 5 am on August 20, 1955, remains of the covered bridge further north washed their way downstream and jammed at the Northampton Street Bridge. The jam, combined with the rushing water, cut through the structure, causing a 50-foot (15 m) gap in the center span. The remaining parts of the bridge were littered in debris from the rushing waters. The span washing away also destroyed telephone cables, which had to be restored by 300 men stringing temporary wire together. Tolls on the Easton–Phillipsburg Toll Bridge were ten cents at the time, but they were lowered to five cents on September 1, 1955 until the Northampton Street Bridge was repaired. The United States Army Corps of Engineers installed two parallel Bailey bridges between the damaged free bridge and the toll bridge. Those bridges opened on March 15, 1956, built with a speed limit of 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) and a weight limit of 14,000 pounds (6,400,000 g).

See also List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in New Jersey List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Pennsylvania List of crossings of the Delaware River

References

External links

DRJTBC Official page Archived August 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-502, "Northampton Street Bridge, Spanning Delaware River at Northampton Street, Easton, Northampton County, PA", 16 photos, 4 data pages, 2 photo caption pages Northampton Street Bridge at Structurae

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Northampton Street Bridge

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Northampton Street Bridge claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Northampton Street Bridge before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Northampton Street Bridge ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Northampton Street Bridge

In research: Northampton Street Bridge appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Northampton Street Bridge in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Northampton Street Bridge is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Bridges completed in 1806, Bridges in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Bridges in Warren County, New Jersey, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Northampton Street Bridge outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Northampton Street Bridge in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Northampton Street Bridge means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Northampton Street Bridge out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Northampton Street Bridge in simple terms?

Why does Northampton Street Bridge matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Northampton Street Bridge?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Northampton Street Bridge.