Bob Regan and Tim Fabian have added bridges to their growing list of Pittsburgh favorites.
"There has to be awareness of them," writer Regan says of the 446 bridges that define the city as much as its hills. "But they are so much part of the city, you can lose your appreciation for them."
"I started out not too excited about it," photographer Fabian says, talking about his assignment to capture bridges as images. "But I became a fool for them."
They are talking about "The Bridges of Pittsburgh," their look at the city's vast collection of spans that will hit bookstands Friday. It is the followup to "The Steps of Pittsburgh," a similar take on the municipal steps that were built as navigation tools for the city's hills.
The 182-page book offers widely varied photographs of the bridges and the terrain that forced their existence. It also includes enough facts for victory at any backyard trivia encounter. For example:
- The first bridge across the Monongahela River was build in 1818 at the site of the Smithfield Street Bridge. A bridge at the site of the Roberto Clemente Bridge was the first over the Allegheny and appeared in 1819.
- Pittsburgh has 7.6 bridges per square mile and its total of 446 is the most of any city in the world.
- The Brilliant Cutoff Viaduct near Washington Boulevard in East Liberty is of an ancient Roman arch style, while the Fort Pitt Bridge, Downtown, was the first to use computer-aided design, Regan says. "So we have a historical range just five miles apart," he says.
Regan and Fabian are pleased with the book and the job it does.
"When I started looking into information on bridges, I discovered there was a lot written, but it was mostly from an architectural, technical point of view," Regan says. "It think this one can be part history, part guide book."
Indeed, the book does offer walking, bicycling and driving tours of bridges.
Fabian says Cheryl R. Towers, chief content officer of The Local History Company, the publishing firm, took a great interest in the photography. She was "editing" all the while bridges were being photographed, and urged him to take a "National Geographic approach."
As a result, he says, the images came out in an "organized, illustrative fashion that convey a lot of information."
Towers also points out City Council is so taken by their effort, it plans to honor the pair with a citation today.
The book is a sequel to "The Steps of Pittsburgh," but the two of them are quick to point out it had a different genesis. They began their step project not knowing what would happen or, indeed, if it would ever be a book.
But Towers, excited at the way "The Steps of Pittsburgh" turned out, thought it would be good to turn them loose on bridges. She thinks there is a great need to spread knowledge of the area.
"If there isn't awareness, no one is going to argue for them or make an effort to preserve them," she says.
That draws the conversation to the Wilksboro Avenue Footbridge in Brighton Heights, a tiny span that she says does not get the maintenance it needs because it is little-known. Regan, who says this bridge is his favorite, hopes the book calls attention to that.
He looks at "The Bridges of Pittsburgh" as the second entry in what he is thinking of as a "Pittsburgh Pride" series, volumes that explore some of the individualistic realities of the city.
Next, he plans a book on the names that show up so often on streets, neighborhoods or sports teams. Then, there will be an examination of inclines and trolleys.
Fabian is mulling a look at churches.
"We're on board," Towers says. "We plan to do them."
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