The new Abraham Lincoln Bridge opened to traffic this week. The 2,100-ft-long, 100-ft-wide cable-stayed bridge connects Louisville, Ky., and Jeffersonville, Ind., across the Ohio River and carries three lanes of traffic.
The cable-stay portion of the new bridge uses 6,000 tons of structural steel. About 800 ironworkers worked on the crossing and assembled more than 650 pieces of structural steel, which required about 76,000 bolts. Horizontal steel girders form the foundation of the bridge deck. Additionally, the steel cables that extend from the three towers to the deck of the bridge required 1.4 million ft of steel strand, enough to stretch from Louisville to Chicago.
Crews set the first piece of structural steel for the new bridge in October 2014. The last piece of steel was set one year later.
For more about the bridge, visit http://kyinbridges.com/downtown-crossing/.