The Harvard Bridge (also known locally as the MIT Bridge, the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, and the "Mass. Ave." Bridge) is a steel haunched girder bridge between Back Bay, Boston to Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, carrying Massachusetts Avenue (Route 2A) over the Charles River. It is the longest bridge over the Charles River at 659.82 meters (2,164.8 ft). It is locally known for being measured, inaccurately, in the idiosyncratic unit of length called the smoot.
After several legislative attempts fraught with antipathy on the part of Boston, it was finally built between 1887 and 1891 with a swing span by Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The bridge was revised over the years until its superstructure was completely replaced in the late 1980s due to unacceptable vibration and the collapse of a similar bridge. The bridge was named for the Reverend John Harvard.
Read more about Harvard Bridge: Conception, Engineering, Naming, Maintenance and Events, Engineering Study, 1971-1972, Superstructure Replacement, 1980s, Bridge Length Measurement
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