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Paw Paw Avenue Bridge

Berrien County, Michigan

Photos 

Paw Paw Avenue Bridge

Article

The Herald-Press: February 15 1966

BH Photo #451154

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Lost Bridge over Paw Paw River on Paw Paw Avenue
Location
Watervliet, Berrien County, Michigan
Status
Removed but not replaced
History
Closed in 1966; demolished in 1969
Approximate latitude, longitude
+42.19305, -86.26166   (decimal degrees)
42°11'35" N, 86°15'42" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/560962/4671474 (zone/easting/northing)
Inventory number
BH 85797 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

19th Century (9,011)
Berrien County, Michigan (53)
Built 1891 (247)
Built during 1890s (3,276)
Lost (29,899)
Lost 1969 (101)
Lost during 1960s (1,030)
Michigan (1,428)
Owned by county (21,708)
Watervliet, Michigan (3)

Update Log 

  • June 30, 2019: Added by Melissa Brand-Welch

Sources 

  • Melissa Brand-Welch - melissabrandwelch [at] msn [dot] com
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Comments 

Paw Paw Avenue Bridge
Posted July 1, 2019, by Melissa Brand-Welch (melissabrandwelch [at] msn [dot] com)

Nathan, you're welcome and thanks for the encouragement.

Paw Paw Avenue Bridge
Posted July 1, 2019, by Nathan Holth (webmaster [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

Melissa, a great find here! I have extensive familiarity with pre-1900 concrete arch bridges, and while some are remarkably ornate with stone facing like Michigan's oldest known surviving concrete arch bridge in Detroit: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=m... others are very simple in appearance, as engineers were not yet confident enough to incorporate significant architectural details into concrete, for example the Cooke Road Bridge in Ohio: https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=o...

This certainly has the potential to be a pre-1900 arch bridge, similar in vintage to the Cooke Road Bridge, and thus a remarkable discovery in the newspapers, thanks!

Paw Paw Avenue Bridge
Posted June 30, 2019, by Melissa Brand-Welch (melissabrandwelch [at] msn [dot] com)

It certainly appears to be one. As far as the age...I based it on information from the paper but as we have found out that's not always accurate.

Paw Paw Avenue Bridge
Posted June 30, 2019, by Mike Kerkau (mjkerkau [at] gmail [dot] com)

An actual concrete arch bridge that pre-dates 1900? At least, I'm pretty sure given what we can see in the article photos, that it was indeed a concrete arch...

Paw Paw Avenue Bridge
Posted June 30, 2019, by Melissa Brand-Welch (melissabrandwelch [at] msn [dot] com)

The photos are a bit dark. I mapped the location as best possible after looking at historic aerial images.