OFFICIAL NAME:
Dooker's Hollow Bridge
OTHER DESIGNATION:
Center Av #4
Bell Av over Dooker's Hollow
brad597-16
LOCATION:
North Braddock
USGS 7.5" Topo Quad - UTM Coordinates:
Braddock - Zone 17; 0597 4472
CARRIES:
Bell Av / Center Av
BETWEEN:
-- Bell Av (North Braddock)
-- Center Av (East Pittsburgh)
CROSSES:
-- Dooker's Hollow; O'Connell Blvd
TYPE OF CONSTRUCTION / DESIGN:
Steel spandrel-braced deck arch (cantilever)
LENGTH OF MAIN SPAN:
TOTAL LENGTH (including longest elevated ramp):
641 ft
HEIGHT OF DECK:
YEAR ERECTED / ENGINEER:
1940, Allegheny County
ADDITIONAL INFO:
The 1903 Hopkins map shows the bottom of Dooker's Hollow divided as the John Dalzell Plan surrounded by land owned by Carnegie Steel Co. Limited. Carnegie built the Edgar Thomson steel works on Braddock's Field along the right bank of the Monongahela River -- immediately south of the opening of Dooker's Hollow. The stream which formed Dooker's Hollow flows into Turtle Creek within the steel works, but has been long ago covered over.
"Dook" is a Scots word (sounds like "duke") for swimming ("dookers" is a swimsuit) and presumably in the ravine above Andrew Carnegie's steel works the local folk found the stream good for "dooking."
The same map shows Bell Av as Township Road in Braddock. A "High Bridge," constructed by the street railway, connected Township Road via Keller Rd and Terrace St to Bessemer Av in East Pittsburgh. Some remnants of the earlier course of this crossing are still evident.
A metal builder's plaque is attached to a stone pylon at each end of the bridge:
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COUNTY OF ALLEGHENY
Dooker's Hollow Bridge
Erected 1940
COMMISSIONERS
Jno. J. Kane
Geo. Rankin, Jr. John S. Herron
CONTROLLER
Robert G. Woodside
COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF WORKS
John F. Laboon
DIRECTOR
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FIELD CHECKED:
INFO SOURCES:
field check
