Tube City Almanac

September 22, 2010

Flashback: Pride of 1960

Category: History || By

Pittsburgh Civic Arena under construction, 1960


I find lots of interesting things at local flea markets that sometimes turn out to be very timely ... such as the February-March 1960 issue of U.S. Steel News, originally sent to someone who worked at the Duquesne Works:
With the completion of the support arm for the movable dome, steel construction has reached the half-way mark at the new Pittsburgh Civic Auditorium. American Bridge workmen finished the arm by attaching a 45-ton tip to the cantilever structure that juts out over the center of the auditorium.

One of the heaviest portions of the support arm, the final section contains pivot pins for each of the six sliding leaves of the stainless steel dome. The leaves will be hinged on those pins and will pivot on the vertical pins by means of giant spherical bearings. On the ground, the leaves will be mounted on wheels following banked tracks to allow the leaves to move easily.

The spherical bearings on which the leaves will roll at the top will fit over the vertical pins in the tip of the support arm. Machined in the Bridge Division's Ambridge, Pa., plant from stainless steel castings weighing 1,000 pounds apiece, the king-sized spherical bearings now weigh 713 pounds each.

The cantilever arm contains approximately 1,450 tons of structural steel fabricated at Ambridge. It consists of a huge, curved box girder and a tie-back framework. The girder extends 205 feet from a massive steel-reinforced concrete buttress to the center of the auditorium and rises 112 feet from the top of the buttress to the highest point of the tip.

Pittsburgh Civic Arena under construction, 1960

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I remember that structure so very well! As a teenager, our family would enjoy musical productions, under the stars! I still have a small silver charm of the Civic Arena….opens and closes, just as the “real” arena did! Ah, memories!
Diane Maydew Belliveau - January 30, 2012



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- August 12, 2014



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