Bolling Bridge, State Route 53 at the Chestatee River, Gainesville

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA-161. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Georgia State Route 53 at Chestatee River, Gainesville vicinity, Hall County, Georgia Bolling Bridge is located at latitude: longitude: The coordinate represents the structure s northeast corner. This coordinate was obtained on August 5, by plotting its location on the Chestatee, GA USGS Topographic Quadrangle Map. The accuracy of the coordinate is +/- 12 meters. The coordinate s datum is North American Datum The Bolling Bridge location has no restriction on its release to the public.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA-161. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

The Bolling Bridge is one of only four known thru-truss steel bridges constructed in Georgia after the bridge is a good mid-twentieth-century example of this bridge design. The Bolling Bridge was constructed as part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Lake Lanier project, a major regional project that provided Atlanta and north Georgia with hydroelectric power, flood control, water supply, and recreational amenities.

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA-161. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

GDOT Project proposes the construction of a new two-lane bridge at SR 53 s crossing of the Chestatee River. The new bridge would replace the existing Bolling Bridge, which GDOT has determined structurally deficient. BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 2 Part 1. Historical Information A. Physical History: 1. Dates of construction: 2. Engineer: Patchen and Zimmerman Engineers, Augusta, Ga., for USACE. Patchen and Zimmerman Engineers, a regional architect-engineering firm working primarily in Georgia and South Carolina, also designed two other steel bridges for USACE s Lake Lanier Project, including Thompson s Bridge and the General James Longstreet Memorial Bridge.

The firm also completed the design of the Clark Hill Dam north of Augusta and various projects at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. 3. Builder: R. G. Foster and Company, Wadley, Ga. R. G. Foster and Company was a regional highway construction firm that primarily worked in Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia. The firm constructed the first section of Interstate 95 in Georgia, multiple sections of Interstate 81 in Virginia, and the test stand for the Saturn rocket program at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. 4. Original plans and construction: Original bridge plans are dated April and represent the bridge as constructed, an 846-foot, thirty-panel, three-span, continuous Warren with verticals thru-truss steel bridge.

The design plans include sixty-eight sheets showing various plan views and elevations of the superstructure and substructure, including the truss, column bents, and abutments, as well as detail views, showing riveting, deck construction, approach slabs, railings, and other bridge components. 5. Alterations and additions: The bridge has been minimally altered. Since its construction, the bridge has undergone routine maintenance to repair damage to horizontal trusses and bridge joints. GDOT replaced the bridge s concrete approach slabs in B. Historical Context: The Bolling Bridge s construction was necessitated by the mid-twentieth-century development of Lake Lanier, a 37,000-acre impoundment located primarily in Hall and BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 3 Forsyth counties, Georgia.

The reservoir was designed and created by USACE by damming the Chattahoochee River near the intersection of Hall, Forsyth, and Gwinnett counties. The new lake flooded sections of SR 53, also known as Dawsonville Highway, including its crossing over the Chestatee River via the previous Bolding Bridge. The highway was therefore relocated approximately 1.5 miles to the south, and a new Warren thru-truss steel bridge was completed in and misnamed the Bolling Bridge after the previous structure.

The current Bolling Bridge is historically significant both as a component of the massive and regionally important Lake Lanier project, and as a rare and good mid-twentieth- century example of a thru-truss bridge in Georgia.1 Lake Lanier USACE initiated the Lake Lanier project to provide regional flood control, primarily to protect a growing metropolitan Atlanta, but also to provide hydroelectric power and water supply storage. Atlanta Mayor William B.

Hartsfield was a strong proponent for the federal project and routinely lobbied Georgia s congressional delegation to move the project forward.2 Hartsfield s major concern was providing a reliable source of water for his growing city s residential and industrial development, a need Lake Lanier has filled since its construction despite ongoing political and legal controversy regarding the lake s original intended uses. Lake Lanier s groundbreaking occurred in and Buford Dam was completed in and dedicated in The reservoir reached full capacity in During and since its development and construction, Lake Lanier has had a profound impact on its immediate vicinity and north Georgia.

The lake realized Hartsfield s dream of a ready and controlled water supply for Atlanta, and that city s and its metropolitan area s rapid, late twentieth- century and ongoing growth are well documented. 1 Georgia Department of Transportation, Historic Resources Survey Report, GDOT Project 00 P.I. No. (March 7. 2 Harold H. Martin, William Berry Hartsfield: Mayor of Atlanta (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 3 Robert David Coughlin, Lake Sidney Lanier: A Storybook Site, the Early History and Construction of Buford Dam (Atlanta: RDC Productions, BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 4 The lake s profound and dramatic effect on its immediate environment included the inundation of tens of thousands of acres of what had been rugged, rural agricultural land.

The lake s footprint necessitated the acquisition or condemnation of hundreds of houses and farms, as well as the condemnation or relocation of small businesses, churches, and cemeteries, and closure or relocation of state highways and local roads.4 SR 53 was one of those relocated state highways. Over time, Lake Lanier has proven an effective flood control, as well as a controversial water source for metropolitan Atlanta. It has also grown to be one of the most popular recreational destinations in Georgia for boating and fishing enthusiasts.5 Soon after its construction, Atlantans and others began building small holiday houses along and near the lakeshore. More recent construction along and near the lake has included larger houses for both full- and part-time residents.

Residential growth around the lake has also spurred significant commercial and industrial growth in Hall and Forsyth counties to service the area and north Georgia s growing population. Bolding Bridge/Bolling Bridge The current SR 53 crossing of the Chestatee River via the Bolling Bridge is a direct result of USACE s creation of Lake Lanier. The original river crossings in this area consisted of Woolley s Ford and later the Bolding Bridge which were located approximately 1.5 miles upstream of the current Bolling Bridge.

Woolley s Ford was a shallow-water ford and the name given to the local, rural community in its vicinity; the Woolleys were an early settler family who arrived in Hall County from South Carolina and settled near the Chestatee River in the The Woolleys constructed a log house and a dam and mill on the river. Notorious criminal John Murrell, leader of a Southern gang of thieves and best known for later operating along the Mississippi River, reportedly occupied the 4 Ibid., 63; see also USACE s Promissory Real Estate Cards and Tentative Final Project Ownership Maps, also referred to as segment maps, held at the USACE Lanier Project Management Office, Buford, Georgia. 5 William L.

Norton, ed., Historic Gainesville and Hall County: An Illustrated History (San Antonio: Historical Publishing Network, 79; and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Lake Sidney Lanier, (accessed June 25, 6 James E. Dorsey, The History of Hall County, Georgia, Volume I, (Gainesville, Ga.: Magnolia Press, BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 5 Woolley house in the He supposedly used the house to ambush and rob travelers at the ford, as a base of operations for horse thievery and other robberies in the area, and to commit murders in secret.

The Bolding family, who originally acquired land near the Chestatee River through the Forsyth County land lottery, acquired portions of the Woolley property in the mid- nineteenth century; they developed a new mill complex on the river and constructed a private, tolled, wooden covered bridge north of the ford circa Hall County acquired this bridge, known as the Bolding Bridge, in The covered bridge was subsequently replaced by a new concrete bridge in the early twentieth century, and this second Bolding Bridge was demolished in prior to the flooding of the Chestatee River valley for Lake Lanier.10 USACE relocated SR 53 and its Chestatee River crossing approximately 1.5 miles south of the prior bridge location to replace miles of flooded roadway and to accommodate a shorter bridge span.

At this time, USACE property acquisition maps and bridge plans show the prior bridge and proposed bridge as the Bolling Bridge. 11 Most likely a typographical error, this name has persisted, and the current SR 53 bridge over the Chestatee River is now known officially and popularly as the Bolling Bridge. Because the new Bolling Bridge was still a relatively lengthy span, USACE engineers selected a Warren thru-truss steel bridge for the crossing, primarily for cost considerations.12 USACE awarded the bridge s design to Patchen and Zimmerman Engineers of Augusta, Georgia. This regional architect-engineering firm worked primarily in Georgia and South Carolina and was also selected to design two other steel 7 Garland C.

Bagley, History of Forsyth County, Georgia (Easley, Southern Historical Press, Inc.), 8 Ibid., 9 Dorsey, The History of Hall County, Georgia, 10 Coughlin, Lake Sidney Lanier, 11 See USACE s Tentative Final Project Ownership Maps ; and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Patchen and Zimmerman, Engineers, original bridge plans titled Bolling Bridge, State Route No. 53, Chestatee River, Georgia, Buford Reservoir, April 12 Georgia Department of Transportation and Lichtenstein Consulting Engineers, Inc., Historic Bridge Inventory Database, Historic Bridge Inventory Report Serial No. BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No.

GA-161 Page 6 bridges for the Lake Lanier Project, including Thompson s Bridge (SR 60 at Chattahoochee River) and the General James Longstreet Memorial Bridge (SR 11 at Chattahoochee River).13 USACE selected Wadley, Georgia-based R. G. Foster and Company to construct the bridge for Construction of the new Bolling Bridge began in and the bridge was completed and opened to traffic in It has been in continuous use since that time with periodic routine maintenance and minimal alteration.

GDOT records indicate that major maintenance work has been conducted primarily within the last twenty years, including repainting; repairs to cracks in the concrete substructure, steel truss members, and bridge joints; and straightening and replacement of damaged truss members due to overhead strikes.16 GDOT determined the bridge was structurally deficient in and has recommended its replacement. Construction of the proposed new bridge would begin in and require demolition of the existing structure. Warren truss bridges17 The Warren truss bridge incorporates longitudinal members joined by diagonal cross members that form a series of alternately inverted equilateral triangles along its length.

A later variation on this original design, as represented by the Bolling Bridge, includes vertical members that divide the truss into panels. The Warren truss bridge functioned by the top chords and end posts acting in compression and the bottom chords acting in tension; the diagonals acted in either compression or tension as loads crossed the bridge. The Warren truss is a theoretically rational design where all truss members equally bear their share of the stresses, unlike other truss types. This bridge type offered a variety of 13 Jack N.

Averitt, Families of Southeastern Georgia (Baltimore: Clearfield Publishing Co., and National Steel Bridge Alliance, Prize Bridge: s Winners, ?id=21366 (accessed May 8, 14 Coughlin, Lake Sidney Lanier, 15 Georgia Department of Transportation, Historic Resources Survey Report. 16 Georgia Department of Transportation, bridge maintenance records, 17 Information in this section is primarily derived from National Cooperative Highway Research Program, A Context for Common Historic Bridge Types and Martha Carver, Tennessee s Survey Report for Historic Highway Bridges (Nashville: Tennessee Department of Transportation, BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No.

GA-161 Page 7 benefits, including strength despite its relative economy of materials, and potential for prefabrication and relative ease of mobility should a bridge require relocation. This truss type was first patented in France by British engineer Alfred Neville in However, its design was later improved in England by British engineers James Warren, the type s namesake, and Willoughby Theobald Monzani. The Warren truss bridge became popular in the United States in the and was used frequently by state highway departments through the and and by railroad companies through the The type has also been employed, albeit less frequently, through the mid- twentieth century to the present.

The Warren truss dominated early twentieth-century bridge design and was used in a variety of configurations by state highway departments, most frequently for short-span pony trusses and thru trusses for intermediate spans. Part II. Structural/Design Information A. General Statement: 1. Character: The Bolling Bridge is one of only four known thru-truss steel bridges constructed in Georgia after the bridge is a good mid-twentieth- century example of this bridge type. 2. Condition of fabric: Good B. Description: The Bolling Bridge is a three-span, continuous Warren with verticals thru-truss steel bridge that carries SR 53 s two travel lanes over the Chestatee River, which is flooded at this location and part of Lake Lanier.

The Chestatee River bed is the county line dividing Hall and Forsyth counties. The bridge is in total length and approximately in total width.19 The bridge comprises three main spans measuring and with two steel stringer approach spans at the western approach. The truss contains thirty panels; each panel is in width. The panels range from to in height according to their relative position within each span and the slope of the top chords. The truss system 18 David Guise, The Evolution of the Warren, or Triangular, Truss, journals/sia/32.2/guise.html (accessed May 8, 19 Measurements in this section are derived from the original plans. BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 8 is composed primarily of rolled section with built-up members at select locations; connections are riveted.

K- and X-shaped cross-frames are used for the bridge s upper lateral bracing. Floorbeams and stringers are set above the lower chords, laterally braced with X-shaped cross-frames, and support a concrete deck. The deck is and includes two travel lanes; the travel lanes have a overhead clearance. Outside concrete sidewalks are attached along the deck s edges, measure in width, and rise approximately above the deck; the sidewalk carries a high railing. This railing is 10" wide in plan; its top rail is carried by posts wide in elevation set 6'- on center. The railings terminate at concrete end posts that curve slightly away from the travel lanes. The end posts are date stamped the bridge s construction date.

The bridge s substructure comprises extremely high concrete column bents and concrete abutments. Including foundation and bent caps, the two primary column bents measure in height. Bent caps measure x in plan. A third pier, approximately 51' in height, and a fourth pier, approximately 35' in height, are located at the bridge s west end and carry the stringer approach spans. The east abutment includes wing walls and is approximately 10' in height; the west abutment, including foundation and cap, is approximately 36' in height. Various maintenance work has occurred over time and included repairs to and replacement of damaged horizontal trusses and joints.

Most recently, GDOT performed major repair work to the bridge s horizontal truss sections in As part of this work, thirty-one truss sections were replaced, and another forty-two were heat straightened. GDOT also replaced the bridge s concrete approach slabs at this time.20 C. Site Information: The Bolling Bridge carries SR 53 and spans the Chestatee River at the Hall County and Forsyth County boundary. At this location, the Chestatee River is flooded and part of Lake Lanier. The bridge site is surrounded by the lake, forested hills, and late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century single-family-home residential development. This development is substantially screened from the bridge site by intervening tree canopy and topography.

20 Georgia Department of Transportation, bridge maintenance records, BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 9 Part III. Sources of Information A. Primary

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA-161. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Georgia Department of Transportation. Bridge maintenance records. On file at Georgia Department of Transportation, Atlanta, Georgia. Georgia Department of Transportation. Historic Resources Survey Report, GDOT Project P.I. No. March Georgia Department of Transportation and Lichtenstein Consulting Engineers, Inc. Historic Bridge Inventory Database. On file at Georgia Department of Transportation, Atlanta, Georgia. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Promissory real estate cards. On file at USACE Lanier Project Management Office, Buford, Georgia. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Tentative final project ownership maps. On file at USACE Lanier Project Management Office, Buford, Georgia. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Patchen and Zimmerman, Engineers.

Original bridge plans titled Bolling Bridge, State Route No. 53, Chestatee River, Georgia, Buford Reservoir. April On file at Georgia Department of Transportation, Atlanta, Georgia. B. Secondary Averitt, Jack N. Families of Southeastern Georgia. Baltimore: Clearfield Publishing Co., Bagley, Garland C. History of Forsyth County, Georgia. Easley, Southern Historical Press, Inc. Carver, Martha. Tennessee s Survey Report for Historic Highway Bridges. Nashville: Tennessee Department of Transportation, Coughlin, Robert David. Lake Sidney Lanier: A Storybook Site, the Early History and Construction of Buford Dam. Atlanta: RDC Productions, Dorsey, James E. The History of Hall County, Georgia, Volume I, Gainesville, Ga.: Magnolia Press, BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 10 Guise, David.

The Evolution of the Warren, or Triangular, Truss. (accessed May 8, Martin, Harold H. William Berry Hartsfield: Mayor of Atlanta. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, National Cooperative Highway Research Program. A Context for Common Historic Bridge Types. Washington, National Steel Bridge Alliance. Prize Bridge: s Winners. http://www.aisc.org/ contentNSBA.aspx?id=21366. Accessed May 8, Norton, William L., ed. Historic Gainesville and Hall County: An Illustrated History. San Antonio: Historical Publishing Network, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Lake Sidney Lanier, Accessed June 25, BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 11 FIGURE 1. BRIDGE LOCATION BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 12 14 1 11 2 10 3 7 9 8 12 13 6 4 5 FIGURE 2. AERIAL VIEW AND PHOTOGRAPHIC KEY BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No.

GA-161 Page 13 FIGURE 3. ORIGINAL PLAN SHEET SHOWING BRIDGE PLAN AND ELEVATION BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 14 FIGURE 4. ORIGINAL PLAN SHEET SHOWING PANELS, LATERAL BRACING, AND STRINGERS BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 15 FIGURE 5. ORIGINAL PLAN SHEET SHOWING PANEL RIVETING BOLLING BRIDGE HAER No. GA-161 Page 16 FIGURE 6. ORIGINAL PLAN SHEET SHOWING PRIMARY COLUMN BENTS