title: Belle Vernon Bridge
text: # Belle Vernon Bridge
  
  The Belle Vernon Bridge, also called the Speers Bridge or Speers/Belle Vernon Bridge, carries Interstate 70 across the Monongahela River from Speers east to Rostraver Township in the state of Pennsylvania. Around 1951 it replaced an earlier low-level bridge, which connected Pennsylvania Route 88 via State Street with Pennsylvania Route 906 at the I-70 east ramps, just to the south of the current bridge. The old bridge carried Legislative Route 118 and Pennsylvania Route 71 until those were moved to the new bridge when it opened.
  
  ## History
  
  The new bridge was authorized by President Truman on 22 June 1946.
  
  ## Incidents
  
  Trolley services were disrupted when a girder for the new bridge fell, severing the wires in 1951. Several people were injured by flying debris when one of the supports for the previous bridge was demolished by blasting in 1955.
  
  