Paul,
Worst thing about it is what they could have done for the bridge with what they spent on demolition. This bridge would have been an awesome landmark in the middle of this town, much like Kellogg Avenue would look fabulous carrying the bike/walking path through the Magrish Preserve.
Speaking of Kellogg Avenue, I have never had much luck finding anything on the pre-1923 bridge---other than it was condemned. Think you would have any luck?
Rick,
I second that--especially since the new bridge was built a quarter of a mile downstream on a totally new alignment. New Baltimore could have had a unique symbol of their town if they had preserved the old giant and restored it for pedestrians, similar to Dayton's old Rip Rap Road Bridge except about 1 1/2 times as big. Fortunately Nathan Holth at Historic Bridges.org was able to amass a huge selection of photos of the Blue Rock span before it was demolished.
My childhood landmark was always the Waterville Bridge, https://bridgehunter.com/oh/wood/8702462/. That crossing will never hold the same appeal since they tore it down last year.
Paul,
This one still eats at me, I can't imagine why the need was felt to demolish it. What a waste of money, it was a magnificent structure. It always reminded me of Kellogg Avenue because of the size and the steel floor, a little blast from my childhood.
I would love to know the criteria ( if there is any ) that has spared the precious few versus all the ones that are needlessly demolished.
This is an incredible length for a Parker truss. I did an advanced search and it appears that the Blue Rock Road Bridge possessed the longest traditional pinned Parker truss span (by traditional I mean non-continuous/cantilevered and non-K-Parker) in the Bridgehunter database. Barring a mis-categorization or the possibility of a bridge having been built and removed without being added to the database, it appears that this may have been the longest pin-connected Parker truss span and the longest vehicular Parker ever built in the United States.
I'm surprised that no one has yet added the pre-1913 bridge at New Baltimore as it was an immense single truss span itself.
none of this shoulda ever happened, truss bridges are the cornerstone of american civil engineering, and how dare a bunch of hoodlums take this away.
Yeah what he said!
Yeah! People who destroyed this bridge want to wreslte with Michael Jackson!
This fine old bridge was taken away! Thats a piece of what a horse leaves on the road to do this! It was almost one of a kind. Elegant it was. Someone or some group ought to suffer a consequence for this! Whoever did this is hot for The Village People(The Music Group)!
Shame on the mindless county! They tore down one of the best bridges anyone ever seen. This is very devastating and I feel like saying everything in the dictionary. Is ther a MAJOR UPROAR over the demolition?
I used to go over this bridge as a child. We were hoping that they would save it.
Do you have any photos of the demolition of it?
Also, do you have any photos of the Bridge that used to be nearby in Ross (Venice) Ohio? that was a cool looking bridge and I cant find any pictures of it.
Thanks (Old Bridge fanatic)
1998 view. This thing WAS one big Parker.