Ditch Road Bridge
Photos
MI-127-1
Photo taken by Dietrich Floeter, July 1995, for HAER
View photos at Library of Congress
BH Photo #121590
Facts
- Overview
- Relocated Thacher through truss bridge over Shiawassee River on Ditch Road in Parshallburg
- Location
- Parshallburg, Saginaw County, Michigan
- Status
- Replaced by new bridge
- History
- Built 1889; Stringers and Deck Replaced 1954; Closed October 1992; Replaced 1999
- Builder
- - Wrought Iron Bridge Co. of Canton, Ohio
- Design
- "The Parshallburg or Ditch Road Bridge is a single-span, Thatcher metal through truss bridge. Engineers who have evaluated the structure's condition believe the metal is wrought iron because of the structure's relatively good overall condition. The eight panel structure has a length of 140 feet and overall deck width of 17.6 feet.
"This single span iron bride was included in the National Register of Historic Places on October 12, 1994. Constructed in 1889, the bridge is the only Michigan example and the oldest of the three known surviving examples in the United States of the Thatcher metal through truss bridge.
"The bridge will be replaced with a new wider bridge at the site of the existing structure. The bridge was recorded in 1996 by Joseph G. Periard of the Saginaw Road Commission, 3020 Sheridan Avenue, Saginaw, Michigan 48605. The report draws heavily from the Parshallburg Bridge National Register of Historic Places registration form prepared by Robert O. Christensen, National Registger Coordinator for the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office, Bureau of Michigan History."
Report Prepared for Historic American Engineering Record
` - Dimensions
-
Span length: 140.0 ft.
Total length: 140.0 ft.
Deck width: 17.6 ft.
- Recognition
- Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on October 12, 1994
- Also called
- Parshallburg Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +43.14389, -84.13472 (decimal degrees)
43°08'38" N, 84°08'05" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/733004/4780779 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Chesaning West
- Inventory numbers
- NRHP 94001168 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 37204 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Sources
- J.R. Manning - thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
- HAER MI-127 - Parshallburg Bridge, Spanning Shiawassee River, Chesaning vicinity, Saginaw County, MI
- Historicbridges.org - by Nathan Holth
Comments
"Perfect Storm" of very cold winter and deep frozen ground, Lots of thick ice on rivers, Unusual quick warm-up, and ice jams. Bridges in Iowa have taken a beating too. We had all the above + weakened structures and footings from last year's floods... Not a good winter for historic bridges.
Unbelievable. More than a hundred years in that spot and only now an ice flood destroys it. How could that happen?
The bridge has been destroyed by an ice flood.
what happened to the bridge ? Iheard that it has collasped .Last summer my brothers and sisters placed a angel on the bridge in my brother rogers memory.
as he so loved the bridge.
We spent endless summers at parshallburg bridge and at the havanah mill. very interested in what has happened.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mi/saginaw/ditch-road/
It would have been fine if it were in it's original location, but when it was moved to the park it was too low to the water. Hopefully if they don't want to fix it, they will give it to the historic bridge park. They can turn that twisted pretzel back into a bridge.