News

Historic Bridge Weekend Coming to Iowa

Each year since 2009, the Historic Bridge Weekend has taken place in August or September, and each year, it has drawn in more people who are experts in historic bridges, preservation or history, as well as those who are either bridge enthusiasts or have a keen interest in how these vintage structures were built and how they played a role in American History.

This year's Historic Bridge Weekend will focus on Iowa, where various types of historic bridges dating as far back as the 1870s can still be seen today, each having its own history in terms of bridge builder and in terms of its association with the communities that cherish them.

The 5th annual event will take place August 9th through the 12th and will focus on eastern Iowa and the Des Moines area. A formal dedication dinner honoring James Hippen will take place August 9th at the Stone City General Store near Anamosa, with dinner and presentations taking place August 10th at Baxa's Restaurant and Tavern next to Sutliff Bridge and August 11th at Horn's Ferry Bridge at 2:30pm as well as at Bos Landen Golf Course near the Horn's Ferry Bridge in Pella at 5:30pm.

The trip to the Kate Shelley Viaduct on the morning of August 12 will round off the four-day event.

More information on the HB Weekend, as well as contact details can be found via link here: http://thebridgehunter.areavoices.com/2013/04/02/5th-annual-historic-bridge-weekend-coming-to-iowa/

Please RSPV Jason Smith before July 15th if you are interested in participating in the HB Weekend and attending the dinner and presentations, so that the venues know how many will attend and you can plan accordingly. Hope to see you at this year's HB Weekend in Iowa.

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New site features

You may have noticed some new features rolled out over the last few weeks:

• County pages now have filters for hiding or showing different classes of bridges (lost, modern and covered). The system remembers your settings from page to page.

• Likewise, the Updates page has filters to hide/show different kinds of changes. This way you can filter out minor updates, but highlight major status changes (such as a bridge being demolished).

• On bridge pages, the major tools (Photo gallery, Google Map and Google Street View) are customizable. Just look for the "Preference" pulldown menu to see the options. All of these settings are remembered via cookies, so they apply to each computer or device separately, and no login is required. So, you could allow Street View on your desktop computer, but hide it on your smartphone.

• The new "Reports" tab in the main navigation bar includes various kinds of statistics about bridges listed on the site.

• By popular demand, photos are now automatically enhanced with a special color-balance tool. The idea is to match the style popularized by one of our regular contributors. He claims that the unique colors in his photos are the result of busted camera settings, but we all know that he was ahead of his time in using an Instagram-like style long before Instagram was a thing. For now, this feature only applies to thumbnails, but I plan to roll it out to all photos.

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Announcing the 2013 TRUSS Awards

Here are the winners of this year's TRUSS Awards (Top Rated Unique Savable Structures), representing the "best" projects from those that were nominated. Of course, "best" is a subjective measure, and it wasn't easy to pick the winners from the large pool of nominees. But these bridges are all special and deserve every ounce of attention and support we can muster. (And let's not forget about the winners from previous years.)

Congratulations to the nominators and all of the people involved in the campaigns to save these bridges!

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Looking back on previous winners

Before announcing the winners for this year's TRUSS Awards, I thought it would be helpful to check on the status of winners from the first two years. For most bridges, nothing much has happened -- good or bad -- although the day of reckoning is quickly approaching for many of them:

2012 winners

• Washington Bridge (Franklin County, Missouri) - Still scheduled for replacement in the next few years

• Meadows Road Bridge (Northampton County, Pennsylvania) - This bridge is still standing, but a decision on its future is still pending.

• Danville-Mickles Bowstring Bridge (Yell County, Arkansas) - No change

• Neosho River K-47 Bridge (Neosho County, Kansas) - Construction on a replacement bridge is underway. When the old bridge is demolished, only two other bridges of this kind will remain (one in Kansas and one in Nebraska).

• Cedar Grove Bridge (Franklin County, Indiana) - Local organizations are trying to raise money to acquire the bridge and restore it for a pedestrian/bicycle trail.

• Meridian Street Bridge (Pierce County, Washington) - This bridge is still scheduled for replacement, although interest has been shown in relocating it for use on a recreational trail.

• Bolivia Road Bridge (Sangamon and Christian counties, Illinois) - Still slated to be replaced

• Cascade Bridge (Des Moines County, Iowa) - Demolition of this rare deck truss remains likely.

• Newport Bridge (Jackson County, Arkansas) - Planning continues for a replacement bridge, but hopefully the old bridge will be taken over by the city of Newport and allowed to remain standing.

• CStPM&O Bridge (Eau Claire County, Wisconsin) - Work to rehabilitate this bridge and open it for pedestrian use is expected to be completed in 2013.

• Black Bridge (Albany County, New York) - Plans are still underway to rehabilitate this bridge as part of a bike trail, but bids for the project came in higher than expected.

• Murray Bridge (Humboldt County, Iowa) - Situation unknown

• Hulton Bridge (Allegheny County, Pennsylvania) - Construction of the replacement bridge on a new alignment is slated to begin Fall 2013 and be completed by 2016, with demolition of the old bridge soon after

• Sixth Street Bridge (Los Angeles County, California) - A design for the replacement bridge has been selected, with construction set to begin in 2015.

• Tappan Zee Bridge (Rockland and Westchester counties, New York) - While state officials briefly discussed keeping the old bridge for pedestrian/bicycle use, that idea is now off the table. Construction on the replacement bridge is expected to begin this year.

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Watch out for errors

I've been busy over the last few days making behind-the-scenes changes to this website (as well as landmarkhunter.com and uglybridges.com) that will hopefully make the site load faster.

With any major programming overhaul, however, it's almost certain that ugly bugs will appear. If you see any errors -- especially the dreaded "Something went wrong" message -- then please let me know.

One last reminder: The deadline for submitting TRUSS Award nominations is this Friday, Jan. 18.

While you are pondering which bridges to submit, you may also want to consider going out on a limb and nominating a threatened bridge to the America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places program run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The deadline for 2013 nominations is March 1st. It would be ideal to see at least one bridge listed every year. Many states and some cities also have historic preservation organizations that run similar programs, so be sure to check them out as well.

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What new features would you like to see?

As the new year arrives, we can try to be optimistic that 2013 won't bring as many demolitions and UCEBs as the last year. But I'm not holding my breath.

This is a good time to pause and reflect. What features or improvements would you like to see on this site? You can use this story to post your thoughts.

Reminder: I'm collecting nominations for the TRUSS Awards until Jan. 18, but please don't procrastinate. Right now 26 nominations have been submitted, but that's much less than in previous years.

One final plug: The hosting bills for this website have been steadily increasing thanks to the recent growth in traffic and uploaded photos. It's a good problem to have, I suppose, but it's still a problem. You can help by making a donation toward hosting costs.

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Merry Christmas

If you have some free time during the holidays, or you're looking for an excuse to take a break from your relatives, then I have the perfect mission for you: nominating a worthy bridge for the 2013 TRUSS Awards. This award is intended for historic bridges that are threatened with demolition or neglect, but are worthy of saving.

To nominate a bridge, navigation to that bridge's page and then click the yellow "Nominate" button. If a bridge isn't listed, then follow this link.

The deadline for nominations is January 18, 2013.

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Try out the new "What's Here?" feature

If you have an editor's account, you may have noticed the "What's Here?" button next to the map when adding or editing a bridge. This feature generates a list of geographic entities located near the bridge. Click on the "Show" link next an item to see it superimposed on the map.

Right now, the tool shows these items:

• Counties
• County subdivisions (townships, New England towns, precincts, etc.)
• Incorporated places (cities, towns, villages, etc.)
• Quadrangle maps from the USGS, with link to download
• Railroad lines, with the yard or subdivision if available
• Other bridges
• Listings from uglybridges.com

This tool should help settle arguments over the ownership of railroad lines, as well as whether a bridge is located in a certain town or township. It should also help cut down on duplicate listings, since it will show other nearby bridges that are already listed.

Right now this is a highly experimental feature. I plan to expand it to cover other things (rivers, lakes, highways, streets, public land). If this is successful, and it doesn't overload the webserver, then I hope to make this tool more widely available.

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The "accidental" historic bridge park

Calhoun County, Michigan, has received much deserved praise for the Historic Bridge Park that has provided a home for truss bridges relocated from elsewhere.

But Clay County, Illinois, has something equally special. Sadly, it has gone unnoticed.

When US 50 was constructed in the early 1920s, the concrete highway included three through truss bridges and one long concrete girder bridge. Three of the four bridges were built with unusual brick parapets.

The highway was bypassed decades ago by a new alignment, but everything from the vintage highway remains intact: the bridges, the concrete pavement, and the brickwork. Of course, the lack of maintenance has caused the structures to deteriorate, especially the intricate brickwork.

While the bridges are barricaded, the connecting stretches of concrete highway are still open to traffic (for landowner access), but see virtually no use, except perhaps from ATV riders. The pavement is rough, but this 2.5 mile stretch of vintage highway has potential as a pedestrian/bicycle trail. With some repairs, brush clearing, and signage, this could be a wonderful park that would cost relatively little.

Unfortunately, the replacement bridges on US 50 are also deteriorating, and IDOT intends to replace them in the coming years. This means that the historic bridges, which sit side-by-side to the replacement bridges, are likely in jeopardy because of their proximity to the construction area.

Local and state officials probably consider these orphaned bridges to be a liability, but with the right marketing, they could be transformed into an asset instead. The concrete girder bridge has been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, but I feel the entire collection of bridges and pavement should be evaluated as a potential historic district.

This could become a recognized historic site and a recreation area, all with a budget that would be far lower than what other counties and towns are spending to build brand-new walking and bicycle trails.

The bridges, from west to east:

• Little Wabash River Bridge: Pin-connected, 9-panel Parker through truss
• Little Wabash River Overflow Bridge: 500-ft long concrete girder bridge with brick parapets
• Little Muddy Creek Bridge: Riveted, 7-panel Pratt through truss; approaches have brick parapets
• Unnamed Culvert: Small box culvert with brick parapet remaining on one side (still legally open to traffic)
• Big Muddy Creek Bridge: Riveted, 7-panel Pratt through truss; approaches have brick parapets

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2012 Ammann Awards: Now Accepting Nominations

This month is National Historic Bridge Month, and with that comes the second annual Othmar H. Ammann Awards, given out by the Bridgehunter's Chronicles. Between now and the 30 November at 12:00am Central Standard Time (USA) and 1 December at 12:00pm Central European Time (Europe), the Bridgehunter's Chronicles is taking nominations for the Lifetime Legacy, Best Snapshot and Best Kept Secret Awards, as well as Awards for the Best Mystery Bridge and the Bridge of the Year- two new categories introduced for this year. More information on how to nominate your photo, bridge and person can be seen via link here:

http://thebridgehunter.areavoices.com/2012/11/05/2012-othmar-h-ammann-awards-now-taking-entries/

The winner will be announced on 23 December.

The Bridgehunter's Chronicles has also started a new page with the best bridge preservation examples, providing people with some live examples of historic bridges that were preserved to use as a reference for their bridge that is a target of preservation versus progress. If you have a success story that you would like to share on the Chronicles, please contact Jason D. Smith at the Chronicles at: flensburg.bridgehunter.av@googlemail.com or JDSmith77@gmx.net.

Other historic bridge campaigns and mystery bridges are still being gathered for posting as well. If you have one that needs attention of the general public, out with it! You'll be amazed at the support you will receive on a larger more global scale. Thank you.

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Historic Bridge Conference scheduled for September

The 4th annual historic bridge conference will be held Sept. 21-23, 2012. This year's destination is the Hoosier state, featuring a tour of bridges around Indianapolis and southern Indiana, with special attention on the doomed Madison Bridge as well as the always-photogenic Laughery "Triple Whipple" Creek Bridge.

For information, contact host Tony Dillon at spansaver@hotmail.com.

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Bridgehunter's Chronicles now taking articles and mystery bridge photos

While the author has been busy profiling some of the historic bridges, providing readers with tours of areas with high numbers of historic bridges, following up on preservation attempts on many, writing about ways to preserve them and digging out some interesting facts on them, or should I say how to find them, there are many historic bridges out there that are threatened with demolition but preservation groups are working to save them and need your help. This includes the Orange Road Bridge in Ohio, the Ft. Atkinson Bridge in Iowa and the Amelia Earhart Bridge in Kansas, just to name a few.

The Bridgehunter's Chronicles would like to help you bring these historic bridges to the attention of the readers, with the goal of providing support and addressing the issues involved with these precious vintage structures.

If you are part of an organization that is working to save a historic bridge or know a historic bridge that is threatened with demolition but would like to save it, please provide a short summary of the structure (history, status, etc.) as well as plans for preserving the structure and a couple photos and send them to Jason D. Smith using the following e-mail address: flensburg.bridgehunter.av@googlemail.com. The information will then be posted on the Bridgehunter's Chronicles, where you will receive some feedback and support for your historic bridge with hopes that you will garner enough support and interest to save the structure. These articles will be posted starting in September.

In addition to that, the Bridgehunter's Chronicles is also looking for any mystery bridges that deserve to be posted. If you have a bridge, whose information is missing and would like to know more about its origins, please send the author a photo with some information (including what questions you want solved on this structure) to the above-mentioned address. The mystery bridges will be posted in the Chronicles beginning in September and listed under the heading "Mystery Bridges." Please be aware that these mystery bridges you present must be those that were built in 1945 and earlier.

The Bridgehunter's Chronicles is a column that brings the past of historic bridges to light, and provides support for preserving historic bridges for future generations to come. After all, historic bridges are relics that deserve our attention.

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I-35W Bridge Disaster: Five Years Later

There have been a lot of stories related to the five-year anniversary of the I-35W Bridge Disaster in Minneapolis, MN. On this day five years ago, the steel cantilever deck truss bridge collapsed during rush hour as many people were either returning home from work or attending a baseball game. 13 people were killed and more than 150 people were injured in that crash. The bridge collapsed severed the most important north-south link through Minneapolis and it would take over a year and a half until the new bridge was completed and opened to traffic. The tragedy created an outcry that the US was not doing enough to maintain its bridges and other infrastructure. It even started a crusade to eradicate structurally deficient bridges, in particular, the truss and cantilever bridges. Yet by the same token, it created awareness about the importance of preserving our past artifacts and has opened new opportunities for engineers, historians, technicians and bridge-lovers alike. While there is a lot to say about how things have changed in the five years since the tragedy, but I compiled an article which will describe the successes and shortcomings we have had since that time. While we haven't had a tragedy as severe as this one since 2007, we want to make sure that not only our bridges are safe, but our historic bridges receive just as much care as all the others. So read this narrative and think about what we have accomplished, what we should accomplish and what is yet to come in the next five years and beyond. Enjoy.

Link: http://thebridgehunter.areavoices.com/2012/08/02/2-august-2007-five-years-later-how-the-minneapolis-bridge-disaster-changed-the-way-we-look-at-bridges/

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Lessons learned from Eggner's Ferry Bridge

"Near miraculous." That's how one official from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet described how everything came together to allow the Eggner's Ferry Bridge to be reopened to traffic in time for the summer boating season. When an off-course cargo ship obliterated one of the bridge's through truss spans on Jan. 26, the situation looked dire. The Kentucky Lake region depends on tourism, and those tourists were likely to go someplace else during the summer to avoid the lengthy detours caused by the loss of the bridge.

Despite the total destruction of a 322-ft span, the rest of the bridge, including the piers, remained intact. That's when KYTC decided to try to reopen the bridge with a temporary span. Hall Contracting, the same company that performed emergency repairs on the Sherman Minton Bridge at Louisville, was hired to fabricate and install a temporary span at Eggner's Ferry -- with a very strict deadline of Memorial Day. They delivered two-and-a-half days ahead of the deadline.

Thanks to the early completion, KYTC decided to open the bridge to pedestrians during the morning of May 25 before allowing vehicular traffic. This was a repeat of the wildly successful "Bridge Day" at Owensboro, Kentucky, where a massive crowd came to see the newly refurbished Blue Bridge across the Ohio River. The Bridge Day at Eggner's Ferry, coming on a weekday with only several hours notice, wasn't able to attract the same overflowing crowd. But that didn't matter: a sizable crowd did arrive, and everybody who walked, bicycled, scooted, or golf-carted across the bridge had reason to be absolutely jubilant.

The new truss span, a simple Warren design, isn't nearly as intricate as the historic Parker and Pratt trusses, and it tends to stick out like a sore thumb. But it's better than 322 feet of thin air. Or a UCEB.

Now that the Eggner's Ferry Bridge has reached a happy ending (at least until it's replaced in a few years), we should consider some important lessons from this episode:

1. When disaster strikes, don't just scrap everything and start over

Immediately after the cargo ship struck the bridge, it seemed that the most likely outcome would be for the old bridge to be scrapped while construction would be expedited on a replacement bridge. That's the typical response in modern American society, after all: scrap first and ask questions later. If this option had been chosen, however, people around Kentucky Lake would expect to be making lengthy detours for two, three, or four more summer tourist seasons. Thankfully, circumstances made it feasible to repair instead of scrap; based on past experience, however, it's safe to say that not every highway department would have even entertained the idea of trying to repair the damaged bridge.

2. Trusses are still a viable technology

In the aftermath of the I-35W Bridge collapse, truss bridges took a bum rap, with "experts" appearing out of the woodwork to claim that truss designs are inherently unsafe because they are "fracture critical." We've seen campaigns in many states and counties to eliminate all truss bridges from public roads, conveniently ignoring that other bridge designs have their own Achilles' heels.

Nevertheless, it was a truss design that was chosen for the replacement span at Eggner's Ferry. The span was assembled off-site and then floated up Kentucky Lake by barge to the bridge site, where two cranes hoisted the superstructure into place. It was an economical design that could be rapidly put together and installed. The more things change, the more they stay the same: these are the same benefits that bridge companies have touted for truss designs for the last century-and-a-half.

3. Truss spans can be moved

In a recent forum comment, a letter from an Ohio legislative aide was posted arguing that relocating truss bridges was an "unheard practice in today's technological age." What a load of expletive. Even with all of these technological advances at their disposal, the contractor for rebuilding Eggner's Ferry Bridge still relied on the tried-and-true practice of moving a prefabricated truss into place. Meanwhile, just downstream at Kentucky Dam, a new railroad truss bridge was built in 2009 using the same method: floating the truss by boat and then lifting it into place. And let's not forget about the amazing development in Illinois last year where a UCEB was replaced by a historic through truss relocated from another location.

Trusses were meant to be moved, either for initial construction or for later reuse elsewhere. This was a selling point historically, and is still true today... except perhaps in Ohio.

4. Bridge events bring crowds

It was fun to see all of the camera-toting people studying every square inch of the bridge while it was open to pedestrians. Letting visitors get a sneak preview of the bridge repairs was a nice touch, something that other highway departments should embrace. With last year's Bridge Day at Owensboro and now the Bridge Party at Eggners Ferry, it seems Kentucky has stumbled across an offbeat, but successful, kind of tourist attraction.

5. Throw enough money at a engineering problem, and anything is possible.

Well, I think we all knew this. It's just too bad there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for politicians to throw money at repairing historic bridges.

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Missouri to name every new bridge after senator

Missouri already has two bridges named after former senator Christopher "Kit" Bond, but that's not enough to satisfy the Missouri General Assembly, which now wants all future bridges to be named for him.

"We're not satisfied with just the new bridges at Hermann and Kansas City named for Kit Bond, we want everything," explained a spokesperson for the Missouri Republican Party.

Next week, the Missouri Department of Transportation will cut the ribbon on a new 23 foot culvert in Audrain County, to be dubbed the Kit Bond Commemorative Culvert. That will soon be followed by a new UCEB built in St. Louis County, to be officially called the Christopher S. Bond Viaduct Sponsored by Anheuser-Busch.

The plan has drawn fire, however, especially from Missouri Democrats. "First they want to name everything after Ronald Reagan, and now this. Sheesh," wrote a left-leaning blogger from St. Louis.

Lirpa Sloof, a popular Missouri radio host, said on the air yesterday, "Has anybody seen the new bridge at Hermann? It's butt ugly! Instead of being an honor for Kit Bond, the name of the bridge is the ultimate insult toward him. What a joke."

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Missing span of Kentucky bridge to be rebuilt

When we last saw the Eggner's Ferry Bridge, a large cargo ship was stuck next to the bridge with the wreckage of an annihiliated truss span draped across the bow.

Since then, the wreckage was cleared away, the ship was repaired and sent underway, and now the state has let an ambitious $7 million contract to replace the missing span by Memorial Day.

Naturally, local residents are thrilled about the repair contract. This is much better than the alternative, a ferry crossing, which probably wouldn't be in operation before Memorial Day anyway -- and would be a bottleneck on a good day.

Details about the replacement span are sketchy, but it appears that it will be some kind of truss span (a Bailey-like design perhaps?). The local newspaper reports:

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet outlined the structure that will replace the bridge span in its bid request. The section will be a railing system at least as strong as the existing bridge, with comporting dimensions. The deck will be 20 feet wide, made of asphalt or concrete. The trusses will be painted to match the color of the adjacent spans.

This will certainly be an interesting sight, at least until the entire structure is replaced by a new four-lane bridge in a few years.

In other related news:

• The name of the Eggner's Ferry Bridge has become the subject of debate -- maybe it's Eggners Ferry, maybe it's Eggner Ferry, or maybe it's even Egner Ferry.

• Just down the road from Eggner's Ferry, a similar truss bridge over Lake Barkley was briefly closed following a barge strike. The bridge is fine, but I can only imagine the sickening "Oh crap not again!" feeling experienced by locals.

• The doomed Ledbetter Bridge near Paducah, Kentucky, now has a 35-mph speed limit to go with the 3-ton weight limit. Weigh-in-motion sensors have been installed to enforce the weight limit.

• The Mississippi River Bridge at Cairo, Illinois, has finally reopened to traffic following a more than year long closure. Unlike Kentucky, Illinois decided to shut down the bridge to all traffic in response to truckers ignoring the 15-ton weight limit -- even though funding for the repair work wouldn't be available for most of a year. Thankfully Kentucky is slightly more clueful in how to handle these situations.

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Finally, the winners for 2012

Without further ado -- or procrastinating -- here are the winners of this year's TRUSS Awards for the top bridges that are endangered and worthy of preservation. In no particular order:

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Honorable Mentions for 2012

I've spent the last week sorting through nominations for the TRUSS Awards (Top Ranked Unique Savable Structures). It's been tough: there's so many bridges that are endangered, and so many bridges that would be viable candidates for rehabilitation or adaptive reuse.

Some of last year's winners were re-nominated again this year. These are all important projects, but I decided to exclude them from winning again in order to make room for other bridges. Meanwhile, most of last year's honorable mentions are now facing an even greater threat of demolition, so I did consider them.

I had originally planned to pick 12 winners, but after changing and re-arranging the list several times, I decided to expand this to 15. And even that's not really enough.

Here are the bridges that didn't make the cut. These honorable mentions are still worthwhile bridges that should be saved:

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The mess at Eggner's Ferry Bridge

The previous 12 months have not been good for major bridges in Kentucky:

• Last January, the Mississippi River Bridge at Cairo, Illinois, was closed to traffic after truck drivers ignored an emergency reduction in the weight limit (the bridge doesn't quite touch Kentucky, but is an important route for traffic between Kentucky and Missouri). The bridge is undergoing repairs but remains closed at this time.

• In September, the Shermin Minton Bridge at Louisville was unexpectedly closed after failing an inspection. It, too, is undergoing repairs but is still closed.

• Earlier this month, the Ledbetter Bridge (Clark Memorial Bridge) near Paducah had its weight limit reduced to only 3 tons. Law enforcement officers are now patrolling the bridge almost non-stop to prevent truck drivers from crossing. The alternative is to shut down the bridge to all traffic, just like at Cairo. (What I can't figure out is why Illinois and Kentucky won't install "headache bars" on the approaches to these bridges to prevent tall vehicles from crossing, which would effectively keep away overweight trucks at almost no cost or effort.)

• And now, of course, the Eggner's Ferry Bridge at Kentucky Lake was shut down in spectacular fashion on Jan. 26 as a large cargo ship slammed into one of the spans.

I visited Eggner's Ferry Bridge today, approaching from the western side at Kenlake State Resort Park. The park offers ample parking and several overlooks of the lake and bridge.

It's quite a spectacle:

The ship went under the wrong span (the second truss from the east). This span is not as high as the main channel span (second from the west). In the collision between the ship and the bridge, the ship easily won, crumpling the 322-feet Parker truss like a wad of paper.

With the ship anchored in place, the wreckage of the truss is now draped on the vessel's bow.

Bridge inspectors have tentatively declared that the western spans are stable, with commercial boat traffic allowed to resume passing under the main channel span. However, the eastern span (a smaller Pratt truss) has been labeled as "possibly unstable", with evidence suggesting that the pier has shifted -- or perhaps continues to shift. It also appears, at least through a telephoto lens, that cracks have formed in the concrete.

Pre-construction work is already underway on the bridge's replacement (a "basket-handle arch" design), but construction wasn't expected to finish until 2016 or 2017. I'm sure that schedule will be accelerated, but a major construction project can only proceed so quickly.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet hasn't ruled out trying to repair the existing structure, but it's going to be tough. First, the 322 ft. gap will need to be filled by a temporary span (perhaps some kind of Bailey truss). That's a lot of distance to cross. It's also likely that at least one pier and the smaller truss span on the east side will need to be replaced or shored up. If feasible, I'd say that repairing the bridge is worth the effort, but I suspect a certain number of local drivers will be terrified to cross the repaired bridge and would rather take a lengthy detour.

Unfortunately, some of the media coverage seems to be clinging to the usual narrative that this "aging" bridge suffered a "collapse." This wasn't a collapse at all: it was a collision caused by an errant ship. The bridge was built in 1932, but it was not considered structurally deficient according to an inspection in Aug. 2010. A large ship veering off course by almost 1,000 feet would be enough to tear apart even a brand new bridge. Indeed, a simple truss bridge, where each span is largely independent of the others, is one of the better designs to handle this kind of collision. Sadly, this incident will likely provide yet another excuse to replace historic bridges with mundane replacements that are shiny and new -- but never 100% accident-proof.

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Site notes: Photo uploads hopefully fixed; NBI 2011 released

I think I've tracked down the source of the sporadic problems with photo uploads. A couple people had trouble uploading photos for their TRUSS Awards nominations, so I've extended the deadline for nominations until Jan. 31. Like last year, the sheer number of entries will make it hard to choose the winners.

In other news, the Federal Highway Administration has released the 2011 edition of the National Bridge Inventory. They've made two versions available: the old fixed-width ASCII format and a new comma-delimited format. The old format can be processed using my OVERPASS program. I haven't tackled trying to read the new format. Unfortunately, it appears that the wrong ZIP file containing all of the states was uploaded (it's the new format even though it's labeled as the old format). I had to download all of the states separately.

I've uploaded the new inspection data throughout the website. The next challenge is tracking down those bridges that appeared in the 2010 edition, but disappeared in the 2011 edition -- this means they were probably demolished.

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Send your nominations for 2012

With the arrival of the new year, Bridgehunter.com is now accepting nominations for the 2012 TRUSS Awards (Top Ranked Unique Savable Structures). This award honors bridges that are threatened with demolition, but would make the most excellent preservation projects. To nominate a bridge, go to the page for that bridge and click the yellow "Nominate" button near the top. You can also nominate an unlisted bridge by going to this page. Nominations will be accepted for three weeks through Jan. 22, 2012.

I have good news and bad news about last year's TRUSS Award winners. From what I can tell, none of the bridges were demolished. But none of them were saved, either, and all remain in limbo. Here's the list with the current status of each:

• Beatty Road Bridge (Morrow County, Ohio) - Closed after failing inspection in August
• Independence Bowstring (Verdigris River) Bridge - Abandoned
• Long Shoals Bridge (Bourbon County, Kansas) - Abandoned
• McMillin Bridge (Pierce County, Washington) - Open
• Mead Avenue Bridge (Crawford County, Pennsylvania) - Closed
• Meramec River US 66 Bridge (St. Louis County, Missouri) - Closed
• Mitchell River Bridge (Barnstable County, Massachusetts) - Open
• Nachitoch Bluff Bridge (Clark County, Arkansas) - Abandoned
• Panther Creek Bridge (Miami County, Ohio) - Open on a private driveway
• Riverside Bridge (Christian County, Missouri) - Closed
• Springfield Bridge (Faulkner County, Arkansas) - Abandoned
• Wagon Wheel Bridge (Boone County, Iowa) - Closed

Sadly, a large number of other bridges were lost in 2011. Our list of bridges demolished last year totals 145, and that list is certainly far from complete.

The year brought a shocking number of natural disasters to the United States. Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee were bad news for covered bridges as flooding unleashed by these storms destroyed Blenheim Bridge (New York), Bartonsville Covered Bridge (Vermont), Seigrist's Mill Covered Bridge (Pennsylvania), and many others.

Spring flooding caused extensive problems on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, at one point forcing the Army Corps of Engineers to intentionally breach a levee in Missouri, causing one bridge to be wiped out in dramatic fashion. Flooding also caused the partial collapse of the Ninth Street Seven Arch Stone Bridge in Illinois; the bridge was later demolished.

Fryer Ford Bridge in Arkansas succumbed to a different kind of disaster: a careless truck driver disobeying the posted weight limit.

As we've been dreading for some time, 2011 was the final year for several notable bridges, including:

• Charleroi-Monessen Bridge (Pennsylvania)
• Bridgeport Bridge (Ohio-West Virginia)
• Mount Carmel Bridge (Illinois-Indiana)
• Paseo Bridge (Missouri)
• Airport Highway Bridge (Tennessee)
• Buechter Bridge (Miller County, Missouri)
• Norridgewock Bridge (Somerset County, Maine)
• Manette Bridge (Kitsap County, Washington)

Last year also brought surprise demolitions that were unnecessary:

• Bono Bridge (Craighead County, Arkansas)
• Old KY 169 Bridge (Jessamine County, Kentucky)
• Bluff Hall Bridge (Adams County, Illinois)

On the bright side, 2011 brought some success stories, even in Pennsylvania and Missouri.

• Mill Mountain Road Bridge (Luzerne County, Pennsylvania) - The Times Leader newspaper explains it best: "Some Luzerne County employees saved taxpayers more than a million dollars by redoing a historic bridge on their own, rather than hiring outside companies to design and build a new one."
• Pine Creek Bridge (Lycoming County, Pennsylvania) - This spectacular Warren Lenticular truss was dismantled in 2008, repaired, and finally reassembled in 2011
• Lake Taneycomo Bridge (Taney County, Missouri) - Located at downtown Branson, Missouri, this arch bridge was twinned by a parallel span and then rehabilitated to carry one-way traffic
• Rock Island Bridge (Pulaski County, Arkansas) - After a long wait, this former railroad bridge opened to pedestrians this year as part of the Clinton Presidential Library grounds
• Chambers Covered Railroad Bridge (Lane County, Oregon) - At one time in immediate danger of collapse, this covered bridge was rebuilt at a new location for pedestrians
• Glover Cary Bridge (Daviess County, Kentucky) - Owensboro celebrated the rehabilitation and reopening of its Ohio River bridge with a special day allowing people to walk across the bridge
• West Bureau Creek Bridge (Bureau County, Illinois) - In the most surprising story of the year, Illinois replaced a UCEB with a historic through truss bridge relocated from elsewhere

Here's to hoping that we will see more success stories in 2012.

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Two more important upgrades

I hope everybody is enjoying the holidays! During my Christmas vacation, I've been spending some quality time adding new features to the website.

Photo license tracking

To help prevent copyright violations and to keep the lawyers at bay, I've added a field to the database to keep track of the copyright license (if any) attached to each photo.

For photos that you've taken, you can decide what license to offer them under. This could be a standard "All rights reserved" position in which you grant permission for visitors to see your photos, but that's about it. You can also choose "Public domain" (renouncing your copyright and allowing anybody to use the photo in any way) or one of the "Creative Commons" licenses (which give various levels of permission for re-using the photo). If in doubt, just use the default "All rights reserved."

For photos that you've obtained from elsewhere, you must specify how they were obtained. If you have permission from the photographer/copyright holder, select "Have permission." If you found the photo on Flickr, Wikipedia, or another website with a Creative Commons license, then choose the applicable C.C. license version -- but be sure to follow their rules carefully, especially about providing attribution. For photos that are out of copyright or were produced by a Federal agency or program (such as HABS/HAER), then you can select "public domain." In some limited cases, you may be able to use a photo under "fair use", but first make sure you understand what that means before using this exception.

This isn't as bad as it sounds. When uploading or importing photos, you can choose the license for each photo from a drop-down menu. To make things easier, you can select the license (and credit line) for the first photo, and apply that to all of the other photos by clicking the little red arrows on the right. For photos that you've taken, it's safe to keep "All rights reserved" and not worry about this.

Expanded design types

I've always been puzzled why the various kinds of Pratt trusses (Parker, Camelback, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Whipple, etc.) have their own distinctive names, but Warren trusses are just called Warren trusses regardless of variation. To better keep track of Warren truss bridges, especially the more exotic designs, I've expanded the list of available design types:

• Warren through truss
  • Warren through truss with no verticals
  • Warren through truss with all verticals
  • Warren through truss with alternating verticals
  • Warren through truss with sub-panels
• Polygonal Warren through truss
  • Polygonal Warren through truss with no verticals
  • Polygonal Warren through truss with all verticals
  • Polygonal Warren through truss with alternating verticals
  • Polygonal Warren through truss with sub-panels
• Lattice through truss
  • Triple-intersection lattice through truss
  • Quadrangular lattice through truss
  • Quintangular lattice through truss
  • Town lattice through truss

(I've added similar subtypes for pony and deck trusses as appropriate.)

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On This Date in 1967

On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge, that crossed the Ohio River between Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio, collapsed during afternoon rush hour, killing 46 people. The eyebar suspension bridge opened in 1928. A similar bridge, upriver in St. Mary's, was immediately closed and demolished in 1971.

As a result of the tragedy, the NBIS was initiated, mandating that all bridges in the United States, longer than 20 feet, be inspected every two years.

Adding to the mystique of the region is "The Mothman Prophesies." Legend has it that the mysterious Mothman foretold the collapse. The Mothman Prophecies is a 1975 book by John Keel that was the basis of a 2002 movie of the same name.

For more about the collapse, see the listing for the Silver Bridge.

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More site upgrades

With the arrival of ugly winter weather, I've had time for more website improvements:

New tool for adding categories

I've added a new admin feature for adding/removing categories associated with a bridge. Look for the yellow "Categories" button on each bridge page, or click the appropriate button to jump to it after adding or editing a bridge.

You can add categories either by dragging-and-dropping (or double-clicking) suggested categories in red, or by typing in a category name in the box. The system provides auto-completion, so you don't have to guess the proper spelling and capitalization for the category name. If you try to add a category that hasn't been created yet, the system will give you a warning so that you don't inadvertantly create a duplicate category.

To remove a category, drag-and-drop (or double-click) one of the green boxes. Changes take effect immediately (you don't have to save changes), although you have the option of adding a note to the Update Log using the box at the bottom of the page.

Review county boundaries

When adding or editing a bridge, there's now an option to "Show county lines" on the Google map. The bridge's selected county will be highlighted in red, while adjacent counties will appear in blue. This gives you the chance to double-check whether the bridge is placed in the right county, or to see whether the bridge crosses a county or state line.

Rotate photos

If a photo is uploaded sideways, it's now possible to correct the problem by clicking the yellow "Edit this photo" link next to the photo and then using the "Rotate left" and "Rotate right" buttons.

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The Ammann Award Winners for 2011 and the Bridgehunter's Chronicles Pics for 2011

The results are out! The Bridgehunter's Chronicles has announced the winners of the Ammann Awards for 2011, the first awards devoted to historic bridges and ways to preserve them. In addition, the Chronicles also has the most striking pics for 2011. All the information and pics are found via link here: http://thebridgehunter.areavoices.com/2011/12/02/ammann-award-results-for-2011/

The author would like to thank the photo candidates and those who voted for the best photos. The bridge candidates should take pride in the job well done in preserving bridges. As for the steel thieves......

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Assorted site updates

Here are some improvements I've made lately:

• Related bridges: I've added a section to each bridge page for showing "related" bridges. For example, if one bridge replaced another one, that relationship can be shown, with links from one to the other. Look for the "Add related bridge" admin links to create these relationships.

• Search engine: Keyword searches will now look for the entire phrase, instead of just matching any of the words. If you prefer the old method, you can go to the Search page and check the "Match any word" box.

• Facts and figures: The new Website Statistics shows a quick summary of the bridges that are posted to the site, broken down by status and design.

• Random county: In addition to the Random Bridge link, you can try out the Random County link to explore another part of the country.

• To-do list: The To-do pages has been expanded to include more bridges that need attention, including those bridges that have had a sudden jump in their sufficiency rating, which usually means they've been replaced by UCEBs.

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National Historic Bridge Month 2011

November is National Historic Bridges Month. And for the first time ever, the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles will be awarding the Othmar H. Ammann Award for Excellence to three candidates for their roles in historic bridge preservation and bridge engineering. It will consist of three categories: The Lifetime Legacy Award to the person who has had an enormous impact over the course of many years, the Best Kept Secret Award to the person or group with the best example of historic bridge preservation, and the Best Snapshot Award to the candidate with the best photo of a bridge in general. Entries are being taken between now and 25 November, with the winners announced on 2 December. The winners will be interviewed by the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles (which will be posted) and receive a Certificate of Excellence Award. If you know of a candidate who has made an impact on the historic bridges community, please send his/her name via e-mail to Jason Smith (JDSmith77@gmx.net) before 25 November at 12:00am Central Standard Time. It is open to all candidates in the US and internationally. Minus the photo entries which you can do yourself, nominating yourself for the other two awards is prohibited; photos of the candidates must be of one’s own work and not that of another’s.

The Award is named after the Swiss-American engineer who designed and led the construction of over a dozen bridges in New York City as well as many others in eastern US and his home country of Switzerland. Among those included are the George Washington Bridge (1939) and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (1964), both located in New York City. The latter was the last of his engineering work (as he died eight months after it was open to traffic) and was the longest suspension bridge in the world until 1981 and still is the longest in the USA today.

Pics for 2011: Also a first this year is the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles’ Pics of the Year. It will be divided up into the following examples- Best example of historic bridge reuse, worst example of historic bridge reuse, the best effort to saving the bridge, the salvageable mentioned, the worst reason to destroy a bridge, the best find of a historic bridge and the biggest bonehead story. You have until the 25th of November at 12:00am Central Standard Time to submit your candidate(s) to Jason Smith (JDSmith77@gmx.net), who will announce the winner and the honorably mentioned on 2 December.

The Bridgehunter's Chronicles will provide some stories about historic bridge preservation during the months of November and December, which will be posted here. Stay tuned.

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What new features would you like to see?

I've been rather distracted lately, mostly because of this. With that out of the way, I'm planning on making some upgrades to the site.

Some items on the drawing board include:

• Mobile-optimized version
• Improved search engine
• Better tool for uploading multiple photos at a time
• Method to attach PDFs and other documents to bridge pages and essays
• Way to tag photos
• Form for submitting news items
• Expanded forum system

Anything else? What upgrades do you feel are the most important?

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Idiots with cutting torches

Last week brought the sensational news that thieves successfully stole an entire 50 foot long steel bridge in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania.

Sadly, this wasn't a freak incident. This week, scrap metal thieves have reportedly struck bridges in Mississippi, removing the support pilings from multiple bridges in Chickasaw County. This is a more ominous development, as any of these damaged bridges could collapse under the weight of the next unsuspecting driver that comes along.

Hopefully this outbreak of bridge thefts will stop once the idiots with the cutting torches realize that scrap steel prices aren't that lucrative.

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The party at Owensboro

It's depressing to think about all of the significant bridges that have been demolished, or soon will be demolished, thanks to a seeming lack of interest by public officials and local residents toward preservation.

And yet people do like and admire bridges. Take Owensboro, Kentucky, where an estimated 10,000 people enjoyed the opportunity to walk or bike across the "Blue Bridge" over the Ohio River on Friday. Repair work on the bridge, which had closed it to all traffic during the summer, was a few days ahead of schedule, allowing the Kentucky highway department the opportunity to throw open the bridge to pedestrians and bicyclists for a one-day only "Bridge Day."

Despite the impromptu nature of the event -- it was only announced on the Monday before -- massive crowds descended on the bridge. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to walk across the bridge without dodging cars, making it possible to study this huge cantilever bridge built in 1940.

Actually, it may not be a one-time event after all. The turnout was so overwhelming that the mayor of Owensboro is already discussing turning "Bridge Day" into an annual festival. "I think we've really stumbled onto something here," the mayor said in a newspaper article.

And why not? Owensboro should be able to celebrate the city's success at saving its bridge. So many other cantilever bridges have been demolished to make room for replacement cable-stayed or steel beam bridges. Owensboro does have a modern cable-stayed bridge, but it was built at a location far enough upstream that the Blue Bridge could be retained for local traffic heading to downtown. That was a smart move: the city gets a modern bypass, while the historic bridge can still provide useful service.

I doubt that the turnout would have been so awesome for a UCEB. I hope that other cities and states are paying attention to the pattern established at Owensboro: build a bypass if you must, but keep the historic bridge around to serve as a true "signature" span for the community, one that everybody can enjoy. If you preserve it, they will come.

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Louisville update

It all started innocently enough. On Sept. 7, the Indiana Department of Transportation announced lane closures on the Sherman Minton Bridge for bridge inspections.

Little did anybody know that this brief lane closure would herald the indefinite closure of the entire bridge two days later. The Sherman Minton Bridge carries 93,000 vehicles per day on average, or roughly 40% of the total traffic crossing the Ohio River at Louisville. The sudden loss of this bridge has forced commuters to rely on the Kennedy and Clark bridges, creating a "Carmageddon" situation to rival anything out of Los Angeles.

A technical advisory from the Federal Highway Administration explains what happened. The bridge, completed 1961, was built with "T-1 steel" which is susceptible to cracking. Previous inspections had found cracking at some of the welds, prompting more thorough inspections and repair work this year.

The advisory states, "On September 8, 2011, inspectors discovered an additional critical crack in the tension tie that previously could not be seen through visual inspection because of the removal of a connection plate detail as part of the ongoing retrofit process... After study and analysis of this newly found crack, it was determined that an unacceptable level of risk to the traveling public was associated with the continued operation of the bridge."

By the next day, the Governor of Indiana had ordered the bridge closed. Since then, even more cracks have been discovered -- and the inspectors are only half done.

It seems likely that the bridge will remain out of commission for months, even years, and there's a chance it could never reopen.

Meanwhile, drivers stuck in traffic couldn't help but notice that some cars were traveling across the Kentucky & Indiana Bridge, a railroad bridge that includes two roadway decks along the sides. These cars were driven by railroad employees who were granted the perk of using the bridge to get to work.

Historically, the K&I carried highway traffic until the northbound road deck was damaged by an overweight truck in 1979. This damage was never repaired.

If railroad employees could use the bridge, then why not the general public? That's been a hot topic of discussion, spawning a Facebook campaign to have the bridge's road decks repaired and reopened to everybody. At least one local politicians is asking the same question.

The owners of the bridge, Norfolk Southern, are naturally worried about liability and safety. But if the bridge is unsafe, then why let employees use it? Hoping to avoid a PR disaster, the railroad has now announced that it will no longer let employees use the bridge.

In 2005, civic leaders discussed using the K&I Bridge as part of a bicycle/pedestrian trail network, but this idea was vehemently opposed by the railroad.

The K&I Bridge is similar to the Harahan Bridge in Memphis with abandoned road decks along the sides. It was recently discovered, however, that Memphis still owned the road decks. Plans are underway to reopen the Harahan Bridge for pedestrian use -- and the railroad can't stop it. That probably isn't an option for Louisville and the K&I Bridge, unless a sharp lawyer can find an old document showing that the public has a right to use the bridge.

Does the city have any other options? Louisville is working on restoring the Big Four Railroad Bridge for pedestrian/bicycle use, but that project won't be completed until 2013. The only other available bridge, the Falls of the Ohio Railroad Bridge, still actively carries trains. It does have some extra room (one of the two tracks is abandoned), but not enough for any practical use.

Thus, it seems that Louisville is in a real pickle.

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Historic Bridge to be Auctioned off

There are historic bridges that have been marketed through the state department of transportation's historic bridge marketing programs, like the ones in Pennsylvania and Indiana, and there are those that were sold directly from one party to another at the price of scrap metal. But what about auctioning off a historic bridge? This small town in Germany is definitely experimenting with this option as a pedestrian bridge spanning a railroad is the target of the German Railroad's plans of expanding and electrifying the rail line, and the town's mayor wants to get rid of the bridge for money. Here's an article by the Bridgehunter's Chronicles with some details on the town's plan to auction it off on eBay:

http://thebridgehunter.areavoices.com/2011/09/16/100-year-old-railroad-bridge-in-vogtland-up-for-auction/

While houses can be auctioned off, auctioning off a whole bridge is an experiment which if successful will provide state DOTs and other local governments an incentive to rid a historic bridge by auctioning it off to someone who will take care of the structure as well as they did. Question is how successful is it to auction a bridge, and what would you use the bridge for if you won the highest bid? Any thoughts from the historic bridge community?

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Historic Bridge Conference 2011

Well, another Historic Bridge Conference has come and gone, and for those who missed out on the highlights of the event, here is a link to the article that was written by the Bridgehunter's Chronicles giving you a brief summary of all the events that happened during the weekend of 12-14 August, where all the bridge enthusiasts and experts congregated on the state of Missouri and did a innerstate tour which started in St. Louis, went south to Springfield and ended in Kansas City.

http://thebridgehunter.areavoices.com/2011/09/01/the-3rd-annual-historic-bridge-conference-missouri/

As for the 2012 Conference is concerned, there is some consideration between having it in Iowa or in Indiana as the plan is to have the event in one of the two states in 2012 and the other in 2013. If you have any preferences, you can let James Baughn, Jason Smith or Todd Wilson of Bridgemapper.com know and they will all be taken into consideration, when the decision is made sometime next year.

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Historic Bridge Conference 2011

Bridgehunter.com, Bridgemapper.com, and The Bridgehunter's Chronicles are partnering to sponsor this year's Historic Bridge Conference. The 2009 and 2010 conferences explored the bridges of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania, while this year's event will feature bridges in St. Louis and Missouri.

St. Louis has a long history of bridge building, starting with the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi River, a National Historic Landmark. In modern times, St. Louis has been an unsung leader in historic bridge preservation, rehabilitating three major bridges (Eads, McKinley, and Old Chain of Rocks).

However, many other bridges are threatened with demolition or replacement. The Meramec River Bridge on Historic Route 66 has been closed to traffic and is in danger of demolition. In the southwest corner of Missouri, the Riverside Bridge at Ozark, Missouri, has also been threatened. The Historic Bridge Conference includes events at both of these endangered bridges.

Click here for more information

Click here for a flyer

Friday maps and driving directions

Saturday maps and driving directions

If you'd like to participate in all or part of the conference, please contact webmaster James Baughn (email: webmaster [at-symbol] bridgehunter.com)

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Riverside Bridge update

The Riverside Bridge near Ozark, Missouri, was selected as one of Missouri's Most Endangered Historic Places for 2010. The bridge is still in danger and has now been selected for the same list for 2011. (The Route 66 Bridge at Times Beach was also carried over to this year's list.)

Meanwhile, Kris Dyer has entered the Riverside Bridge in the This Place Matters Community Challenge from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The historic site that receives the most votes will win a very nice grant. Right now the Riverside Bridge is ranked 43 out of 100. To vote for the bridge, please follow this link. You can only vote once and the deadline is June 30.

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Extreme Bridgehunting: Pickup Truck Edition

Found this on That Will Buff Out and thought you might also get a smile from it.

see more That Will Buff Out

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Stimulus money actually used for historic bridge preservation

In a stunning development, it has been revealed that Federal economic stimulus money is being used to rehabilitate the Meridian Bridge at Yankton, South Dakota. The Feds are chipping in $4 million to convert the bridge for pedestrian use.

Yes, it's hard to believe. I thought this was an April Fools Day gag, but it's apparently true. Based on this development, I would strongly recommend bracing for an outbreak of flying pigs. If this trend continues, we could witness the core temperature of Hell dropping below freezing.

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Desk clearing time

Here are a few announcements to clear off my desk:

• Eagle Days at Old Chain of Rocks Bridge in St. Louis, Missouri, is this weekend (Jan. 15-16). This is a popular event where people can walk out to the middle of the bridge and look for bald eagles through viewing scopes.

• Vern Mesler has announced the Second Annual Iron & Steel Preservation Conference, March 7-9, 2010, at Lansing Community College, in Lansing, Michigan. Sounds like a lot of fun.

• Eric Sakowski is offering a tour this August of the bridges of China, including 8 bridges that are taller than the Royal Gorge Bridge. This looks pretty intense.

• Jason Smith is soliciting contributions (articles and columns) about historic bridges for his Bridgehunter's Chronicles site.

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Something a little different

Now's a good time to take a break from worrying about Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridges and enjoy something different. As part of a clever marketing gimmick, Union Pacific will be taking one of their steam locomotives on an excursion following a route selected by voters.

Right now the "Tuscola Turn" route around Chicago is in first place, but I'm rather partial to the "Little Rock Express" which will likely feature a crossing of the Mississippi River on the Thebes Bridge. In 2004, the UP "Challenger" steam locomotive came to Thebes, and it was quite a sight.

It looks like all four possible routes would feature photo opps of the locomotive crossing historic bridges. So be sure to vote early and vote often for your favorite route (hint: Little Rock Express).

Update Jan. 16: With just two days left, the voting is neck-and-neck between the "Little Rock Express" and "Tuscola Turn" routes.

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Some 2010 success stories

Let's face it: Last year was a bad one for historic bridges. Thanks to stimulus funding, many bridges were demolished to make room for shiny new UCEBs. These "shovel ready" projects could just as easily have been called "bulldozer ready." Meanwhile, floods and other disasters wiped out numerous bridges in Tennessee, Iowa, and elsewhere.

Nevertheless, 2010 didn't bring all bad news, as some historic bridges were rehabilitated and (gasp!) given new paint jobs. Even everybody's favorite highway department, PennDOT, notched a couple of successful historic bridge projects -- and we're not talking about covered bridges!

Here is a rundown of successful projects completed in 2010. (Sorry if I missed any obvious examples.)

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On This Date In History...

On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge between Kanauga, Ohio and Point Pleasant, West Virginia collapsed into the Ohio River. The collapse occurred during afternoon rush hour without any warning, the bridge simply failed. 46 people perished in the disaster.

It was a significant event in bridge history, because a result of the collapse was the creation of the National Bridge Inspection Standard, mandating that all bridges longer than 20 feet be inspected every two years.

An essay about the bridge, the collapse, appears on the Silver Memorial Bridge, opened exactly two years later, on this date in 1969.

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And now... the winners

It's time to announce the Top Twelve recipients of the first-ever TRUSS Awards (Top Ranked Unique Savable Structures). These bridges are just the tip of the iceberg for historic bridges worthy of saving. Even though I received a large number of nominations, plenty of bridges weren't nominated at all, but that doesn't mean they aren't important (I'll discuss some of these in a future story).

Enough stalling, I'm opening the envelope now...

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Top Ranked Unique Savable Structures

First, the good news. When I asked for nominations for the bridges most worthy of preservation, I didn't expect to have an inbox overflowing with entries. But I did. There was even a small letter writing campaign in support of one bridge in particular.

That leads me, however, to the bad news. There's simply far too many historic bridges across the U.S. threatened by demolition or neglect. Despite our best efforts, the vast majority will be gone before we know it. This kind of list shouldn't be necessary, but here we are.

From the nominations, I tried to pick out the best of the best. It wasn't easy, as good cases could be made for all of the nominees. In the end, I settled on the Top Twelve bridges, a nice round number, for the inaugural TRUSS Award -- or Top Ranked Unique Savable Structures. (This sounds better than the old name.)

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Buy and sell photos

Here we are at Black Friday, or Crass Commercialism Appreciation Day. In that spirit, Bridgehunter.com is pleased to announce new features for buying and selling historic bridge photos on this website.

Sellers

If you have an Editor's Account, you can now add a link to each photo for ordering prints, buying cheesy merchandise, or selling licenses. Just upload your photos to a storefront such as Imagekind, Cafepress, Lulu, etc., and then copy-and-paste the link to the order page for each photo. To make it easier for people to find your photos, you can tag up to 100 photos as a "favorite" and it will appear on your profile page. The options for adding links and favorites are available on the Add Photos and Manage Photos screens.

Of course, uploading photos to other websites is a pain. We now have an extra option to make all (or most) of your photos available for purchase all at once. Here's an example. Your photos will have a "Request this photo" button to make it easy for customers to contact you about requesting a print or license. Then you can upload the high-resolution version of the photo to a site like Imagekind and let the customer order from there. I'm still beta-testing this feature, so if you're interested, let me know so I can set you up.

Buyers

If you're looking for original artwork for Christmas gifts (or for yourself), then keep your eyes peeled for the "Order this photo" or "Request this photo" buttons throughout the website.

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Supporting more buzzwords

I've added some new features to make Bridgehunter.com more buzzword compliant:

1. Each bridge page now includes an AJAX-powered rating widget to leverage the power of crowdsourcing. The idea is to give each bridge a rating of 0-5 stars based on your opinion of the bridge's overall historic significance. After enough votes are tabulated, the most important bridges will rise to the top, while UCEBs will drop to the bottom where they belong.

To cast your vote, just hover your mouse over the widget to choose the appropriate 0-5 rating (partial stars are allowed). After you click, you should see a note that says "Vote cast!" If you change your mind, you can click again to update your vote.

2. Each bridge page also supports social bookmarking with links to share the page on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

3. The tables on the site, including the County Guide pages and NBI listings, are now sortable through the magic of Web 2.0 technology. Just click one of the headers to sort everything in the column below.

Now that the site has been upgraded with all of these pointless buzzwords, when can I expect to receive my $1.5 million in venture capital funding that other buzzword-enhanced websites have been getting?

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Introducing The Bridgehunter.com Top Bridges That Can Be Saved List

November is Historic Bridge Awareness Month. To mark this event, Bridgehunter.com is putting together a list of Top Bridges That Can Be Saved (TBTCBS). In a similar fashion to the Most Endangered Historic Places lists produced by state and national historic preservation organizations, the Can Be Saved List will highlight those bridges that are threatened (either by demolition or neglect) but have a realistic chance of being saved if enough people show their support.

This list isn't just for bridges that are slated for replacement by UCEBs. Some historic bridges have been "saved" at some point in the past, but are now abandoned, crumbling, and will eventually be lost anyway if nothing is done.

If you know of a bridge that is threatened but is worthy of saving, then please nominate the bridge for possible inclusion in the list. You can go to the listing page for the bridge and click the new "Nominate this bridge" link at the top. Or, if the bridge doesn't have a listing already, then you can go to the nomination form directly.

The final list will be announced in a few weeks, so don't procrastinate in nominating your favorite bridge or bridges.

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Random links of interest

• Raymond Klein forwarded a link to a book from 1891 entitled "Report of the Board of railroad commissioners of the state of New York on strains on railroad bridges of the state." Despite the dry title, the book is quite fascinating, featuring simple drawings of the iron and steel railroad truss bridges in New York State. Glancing through the book, I spotted examples of the elusive Whipple deck truss design.

• Illinois now has a website on the historic bridges in the state.

• Ohio has posted a revised version (from Sept. 27, 2010) of its historic bridge inventory.

• This page on the Federal Highway Administration website describes various kinds of bridge rails. Unfortunately, it appears that many of the safest designs are also among the ugliest designs.

• I haven't had a chance to download and convert any of the massive files, but this website offers scanned images of 1890s-era maps from the Mississippi River Commission.

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"Bridge Day" on the New River Gorge Bridge

October 16 was the 31st Annual Bridge Day event at the New River Gorge Bridge, near Fayetteville, West Virginia. The New River Gorge Bridge was the longest steel arch bridge in the world when it was built, and was long a target of BASE jumpers, Rappellers and bungee jumpers. Once a year, authorities close down US 19 to allow enthusiasts to jump off the bridge to the New River, 876 feet below the surface of the bridge.

(BASE is an acronym for the enthusiasts of the extreme sport, who jump from a building, antenna, span or earth.)

The first BASE jump from the NRGB was made (illegally) in 1979 by Burton Ervin. The attraction to use the bridge, illegally, for BASE and bungee jumping gave Glenn Lukacs of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce the idea to create Bridge Day. On November 8, 1980, the first legal BASE jumps were made from the NRGB.

Bridge Day has been held every year since, with the exception of 2001. Due to severe injuries to a bungee jumper in 1993, that type of jump is no longer allowed.

Today was Bridge Day, with over 400 extreme athletes there to BASE jump along with 20 Rappellers. Thousands of spectators were there to watch and enjoy the festivities.

For more about this year's Bridge Day, see Gorgeous Day for a Free Fall on the website of the Beckley Register-Herald.

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Welcome, participants from "Outwit the West"

I've noticed a surge in traffic during the last week as contestants in the Marlboro "Outwit the West" contest have been searching for the answers to Question #9. The question requires matching four photos of bridges with the name of the river that they cross.

The quiz is rather sneaky. Here are some hints:

Photo A. Based on the number of hits I've received from people Googling for the Rob Roy Bridge over the Arkansas River, it appears many people are going to get this one wrong. It's not Rob Roy.

Photo B. This is a ferry, not a bridge. Ha!

Photo C. The Alabama state flag is obviously just a distraction. Look closely at the tower on the left. Other than the Golden Gate Bridge, what is the most famous suspension bridge in the West? (Although I would argue the bridge's "fame" is overrated.)

Photo D. Ignore the fish-eye lens effect and consider how grand this canyon looks.

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Site updates

• The problems from last week with the Google Street View widget appear to have been fixed.

• I've had some inquiries about how to submit photos to be included in the redesigned masthead at the top of the front page. There's two requirements: the photo needs to be cropped into a very wide format (760 pixels wide by 135 pixels tall), and there needs to be room to fit the "BRIDGEHUNTER.COM" name in one of the corners. You can upload photos using the Feedback form. Note: LandmarkHunter.com will get the same treatment as soon I can round up enough masthead photos.

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