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Curlew Bridge

Ferry County, Washington

Photos 

Curlew Bridge

Photo taken by Richard Doody in 1995

Enlarge

BH Photo #420793

Map 

Street View 

Description 

Curlew’s first bridge across the Kettle River was constructed in 1901 by Alfred Jaques Ferry County paid $2,448 for the wooden span. It was replaced in 1908 with a steel bridge. The William Oliver Bridge Company of Spokane built the pin connected, wood decked, Parker truss. Oliver built bridges across a territory stretching from the Cascades to Missoula. The Curlew Bridge, his 165th, is still in service. That it still stands, over a century later, is a testament to Oliver’s abilities which were called into question following the collapse of the Omak drawbridge.

Facts 

Overview
Through truss bridge over Kettle River on Ferry Street in Curlew
Location
Ferry County, Washington
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1908; rehabilitated 2006
Builder
- William Oliver Bridge Co. of Spokane, Washington (Contractor)
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 182.1 ft.
Total length: 202.1 ft.
Deck width: 13.8 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places on July 16, 1982
Approximate latitude, longitude
+48.88544, -118.60119   (decimal degrees)
48°53'08" N, 118°36'04" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
11/382618/5415957 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Curlew
Average daily traffic (as of 2016)
176
Inventory numbers
NRHP 82004210 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 34208 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection report (as of July 2017)
Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Satisfactory (6 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 49.1 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com

Categories 

Built 1908 (711)
Built during 1900s (7,224)
Ferry County, Washington (15)
Have street view (26,938)
Kettle River (Washington) (4)
NR-listed (2,960)
One-lane traffic (7,606)
Open (39,880)
Owned by county (20,782)
Parker through truss (1,295)
 Parker truss (1,676)
Pin-connected (3,901)
Span length 175-250 feet (1,987)
Through truss (15,056)
Total length 175-250 feet (4,265)
Truss (32,776)
Washington (1,314)
William Oliver Bridge Co. (2)
Wooden deck (6,069)

Update Log 

  • April 20, 2018: Updated by Richard Doody: Added historical data to description
  • April 3, 2018: Merged duplicate pages; untangled confusion between Curlew and Orient bridges
  • April 3, 2018: Added by Richard Doody
  • December 21, 2009: New photos from Michael Goff

Sources 

  • Mike Goff - michael [dot] goff [at] hotmail [dot] com
  • Wikipedia - Curlew Bridge
  • Richard Doody
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Comments 

Curlew Bridge
Posted April 3, 2018, by Richard Doody (rpdoody3 [at] gmail [dot] com)

Glad the confusion between the Curlew vs Orient Bridge has been resolved. They both span the Kettle River and look similar from a distance.

Back before the internet, I began looking for bridges based on the national register of historic places and was quite disappointed to find the listed Orient Bridge replaced with a concrete slab. A couple of hours later and 2 border crossings in and out of Canada, I was rewarded with a view of the Curlew Bridge.

Orient Bridge
Posted June 29, 2016, by BK-Hunters (kh5 [at] shaw [dot] ca)

This was never named the Orient Bridge. It was always the Curlew Bridge. The Orient Bridge, also listed in the national register but in Stevens County, has since been replaced by a concrete and steel girder bridge and no longer exists.

See Orient Bridge at: http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/wa/stevens/s...

See also: http://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/82004297.pdf