The steel stringer was built in 1950 and was a standard plan bridge, but on one side the R4 railings had been replaced by New Jersey barriers, making the bridge an altered and very poor example of a structure type better documented by other unaltered structures. The bridge was replaced as you note in 2017 by a welded prefab modern (aka ugly) pony truss bridge. A weird phenomenon that has occurred in Michigan in recent years is the use of truss bridges (unlike Ohio, modern trusses are not common in Michigan) but they have been used for hydraulic reasons I believe (longer clear spans). In any case, the decision to use trusses here was a poor one, since the trusses completely blocked the view for a nearby intersecting road. It was so accident prone I believe they had to close the bridge for a time and if memory serves I believe a signal was to be installed to safely control traffic. Bet you won't find this bridge on the US Bridge Company website!
Dana,
I'm confused by the name. This is listed as a replacement bridge - any idea of what this replaced?
Reason I ask is, this bridge was itself replaced by a modern pony truss in 2017.
Thanks Mike, always try to sequence for history value, do Replacement, old,older. Then if necessary 1 23 4 etc.