photography: Rachel H. Sangree

Single span stone arch bridge

Casper Weaver (builder)

James Lloyd (designer)

1828-29

CSX over Gwynn's Falls: accessed

through Carroll Park - near intersection

of Washington Blvd and I-95 in

Baltimore City [Standalone Map]

Carrollton Viaduct was the first masonry

arch railroad bridge built in the United

States. [more]

The shape of an arch is ideal in masonry construction... [more]

J. Dorsey and J.D. Dilts, A Guide to Baltimore Architecture (Third Edition), Tidewater Publishers, Centreville, MD (1997), p. 236.  [more]

Carrollton Viaduct was the first masonry arch railroad bridge built in the United States.  It is still in

use today.  The bridge is 312 feet long, with a clear span of 80 feet over Gwynn's Falls.  The arch

was constructed with the use of wooden false work laid in the stream.  The false work was required

to carry a load of approximately 1500 tons.  The cost of the bridge upon completion was

$58,106.73.

The shape of an arch is ideal in masonry construction because vertical dead and live loads are converted into compressive forces (the only kind of force that unreinforced masonry can resist) along the arch.  The compressive forces are in turn resisted by the foundations at both ends of the arch.

J. Dorsey and J.D. Dilts, A Guide to Baltimore Architecture (Third Edition), Tidewater Publishers, Centreville, MD (1997), p. 236.

Historic American Engineering Record, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad: Carrollton Viaduct.  HAER No. MD-9. Retrieved March 15, 2005 from:

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hh:@FIELD(DOCID+@BAND(@lit(MD0908)))