Twin Bridges
Description
According to a 1937 article there are 97 spans in the 1932 bridge with 47 in the "bridge proper". The traffic lanes are 30 foot wide with a two foot walkway. "The idea of constructing a bridge to replace the inadequate ferry was so popular with the people of Vanderburgh county that they put up a sum of money equivalent to one-fourth the cost of construction. The remaining portion of Indiana's half was supplied by the state itself, Kentucky furnishing the remainder." Total cost was $2,142,876 for the 1932 bridge said Bob Schaub in "EVANSVILLE-HENDERSON SPAN" in the March 1948 "Outdoor Indiana".Facts
- Overview
- Pair of cantilevered through truss bridges over the Ohio River on US 41. Rehabilitated 2008
- Location
- Henderson County, Kentucky, and Vanderburgh County, Indiana
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Northbound bridge built 1932; southbound built 1965
- Builders
- - Modjeski & Masters of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (Design)
- Ralph Modjeski of Bochnia, Poland (Design)
- Design
- Warren Cantilevered through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 720.0 ft.
Total length: 5,393.6 ft. (1.0 mi.)
Deck width: 29.8 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 19.8 ft.
- Recognition
- Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
- Also called
- John James Audubon Bridge (original official name)
Evansville Bridge
Bi-State Vietnam Gold Star Twin Bridges (current official name)
Evansville-Henderson Bridge - Approximate latitude, longitude
- +37.90417, -87.55056 (decimal degrees)
37°54'15" N, 87°33'02" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/451599/4195325 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Evansville South
- Inventory numbers
- KY 051-B00002R (Kentucky bridge number)
BH 18816 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 08/2012)
- Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Appraisal: Functionally obsolete
Sufficiency rating: 69.8 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2013)
- 19,208
Update Log
- January 12, 2013: New photos from Robert Thompson
- November 15, 2011: Updated by J.P.: Added Bridge Design
- June 30, 2011: Updated by James Simmons: I added vanderburgh county. I know its technically all in henderson county, but many people from evansville are likely to search it from vanderburgh. This will make it easier for them to find it.
- September 1, 2010: Updated by Ed Hollowell: Modjeski and Masters added so it would match catigory
- August 23, 2010: Updated by Ed Hollowell: Added Builder and discrtption information.
- March 14, 2010: Updated by Bill Eichelberger: Added Google Street View.
- February 23, 2010: Updated by J.P.: The indiana state line starts about a half mile after the bridge so its only in henderson county kentucky
- February 23, 2010: Updated by Kim Harvey: added county: Vanderburgh
- March 31, 2009: New photos from James McCray
- March 29, 2009: New photo from J.P.
- August 21, 2006: Posted photos from Chris Light
Sources
- Chris Light - CJKADJ [at] juno [dot] com
- J.P. - wildcatjon2000 [at] gmail [dot] com
- James McCray - jamesinslocomb [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Kim Harvey
- Bill Eichelberger
- Ed Hollowell - erhollowell [at] aol [dot] com
- James Simmons - james [at] simmons [dot] net
- Wikipedia
- Robert Thompson
Comments
In the process of doing some historical research on the bridges I found a copy of the original toll card. The toll was 25 cents for a vehicle up to 6 passengers. 7 passengers or more the toll was 35 cents. However, the item that caught my eye was "Livestock on the hoof 5 cents per head." I have a news release with some additional history I wrote for the 75th annicersary of the northbound bridge.-- Keith
Some information I discovered about the original Bridge, Evansville actually was opposed to any bridge crossing the Ohio River into Indiana due to the idea that People living in Kentucky would take jobs from Indiana people. But due to the earthquake of 1812 the river had shifted to its current course leaving a portion of the Ohio River entirely in Kentucky. Thus leaving open the fact that Kentucky did not Indiana to build the Bridge and thus you now have the location of the twins.
Modjeski & Masters got credit for designing the 1932 span but I don't know about the newer span.
Thankyou J.P. for showing me these bridges. I can understand why you love these bridges. Now as for your last comment on these bridges, it would seem to the people who read it that you love these bridges so much that you were "born" on them......hmmmmmmmm???? Now tell everyone the rest of the story.
i love these bridges, I use to live about an hour south of evansville, but anytime we would go to the zoo we would cross these. I use to call these the twins on the river.
My grandfather, AV Burch Sr lobbied for many years and finally was successful after being appointed to the Indiana highway commission, in getting the State of Indiana and Kentucky to construct the bridge from Evansville to Henerson. The complaint from Kentucky was that their residents would cross the bridge to shop and spend money in Evansville.
We used to call these the "singing" bridges. They used to have some sort of metal links for the road bed and made a funny sound when you drove over them.
But the metal is gone and now it has a concrete roadbed.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/ky/henderson/evansville/