Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge

The Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge was a vertical-lift bridge in the Port of Los Angeles. Dedicated on January 10, 1948, the bridge allowed State Route 47 (the Terminal Island Freeway) to cross over the Cerritos Channel. Named after Schuyler F. Heim, who was in command of the Naval Air Station on Terminal Island in 1942, the bridge was one of the largest vertical-lift bridges on the West Coast. At the time of its opening, it was the highest in the country with the deck weighing about 820ST. Its towers are 186ft tall above the roadway deck and about 236ft tall when measured from the water level at high water. The bridge was decommissioned on October 12, 2015 and will be replaced by a new, six-lane fixed-span bridge in order to meet current safety and earthquake standards. A replacement bridge, tentatively titled State Route 47 Schuyler Heim Bridge Replacement, is expected to open in early 2017.HistoryEarly connections to Terminal IslandThe San Pedro, Los Angeles and Utah Railroad was incorporated on October 8, 1887 with the goal to build a line from Rattlesnake Island (renamed Terminal Island by 1897) on the east side of San Pedro Bay to Utah. The same "English syndicate" which had purchased Catalina Island was said to have secured the right-of-way between Los Angeles and Rattlesnake Island in 1889, with plans to have the rail line operated by the Santa Fe. However, the Los Angeles Terminal Railway, which had purchased Rattlesnake Island and the right-of-way by 1890, was the first to build tracks on the island, completing the line along the western and northern sides of the island to Long Beach on November 7, 1891, as the start of a planned transcontinental route. The line included a 1000ft pile bridge spanning the mouth of the Los Angeles River, near the present site of the Gerald Desmond Bridge.