Rating:
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Lincoln Highway Ottawa River Bridge

Allen County, Ohio

Photos 

All That Remains of this bridge is a monument

The original three-arch closed spandrel bridge carried US 30 from 1927 until US 30 was relocated to the south as a superhighway. Named highways were eliminated in 1926 when today's familiar highway numbering system was implemented. The highway retained the popular moniker of Lincoln Highway for decades, anyway. The bridge was removed in 2002.

This monument disappeared shortly after it was erected. Several years later, an anonymous tip lead authorities to look for the monument at the bottom of a nearby well, where it was found, along with several empty beer cans. It is assumed that the anonymous tipster was one of the perpetrators of the kidnapping.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in October 2007

BH Photo #109987

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Concrete arch bridge over Ottawa River on Lincoln Highway
Location
Allen County, Ohio
Status
Replaced 2002, Historical Monument Placed
History
Built 1926, Replaced 2002
Design
Closed-spandrel arch
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 70.0 ft.
Total length: 210.0 ft.
Deck width: 28.0 ft.
Recognition
Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
Approximate latitude, longitude
+40.84833, -84.19500   (decimal degrees)
40°50'54" N, 84°11'42" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/736458/4525708 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Elida
Inventory numbers
OH 254096 (Ohio bridge number)
ODOT 254096 (Ohio Dept. of Transportation structure file number)
BH 35864 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Allen County, Ohio (58)
Arch (12,732)
Built 1927 (899)
Built during 1920s (10,328)
Closed-spandrel arch (4,289)
Deck arch (11,959)
Lincoln Highway (143)
Lost (30,024)
Lost 2002 (493)
 Lost during 2000s (4,440)
NR-eligible (4,125)
Ohio (4,681)
Owned by county (21,721)
Replaced by new bridge (20,431)
Span length 50-75 feet (10,550)
Structurally deficient (12,759)
Total length 175-250 feet (4,597)

Update Log 

  • March 30, 2008: Updated by J.R. Manning: Added Bridge to "Lincoln Highway" Category
  • February 26, 2008: Updated by J.R. Manning: Added missing and incomplete data
  • January 27, 2008: New photos from J.R. Manning

Sources 

  • J.R. Manning - thekitchenguy [at] sbcglobal [dot] net
  • Steve Conro - sconro [at] yahoo [dot] com
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Comments 

Lincoln Highway Bridge
Posted June 20, 2008, by Sam (Sam [dot] Bowerman [at] gmail [dot] com)

Here are some photos I took of the old bridge not long before it was gone, I think I took these in the late fall of 2001.