When I was a kid, our family made lots of road trips in the Old Man’s Buick. There were no superhighways in those days, at least, in the directions we usually went. The Interstate System was under development, I-94 was being built between Milwaukee and Madison, but we hardly ever went to Madison.
Highway 41 was a divided expressway between Milwaukee and Oshkosh. (An expressway is a divided highway but it is not a superhighway because it has dangerous grade crossings.) Highway 41 had an awful bottleneck at Lake Butte des Mortes, where the road narrowed to two lanes and crossed the lake on a causeway. It was also interrupted by a bascule bridge that always opened at the most inopportune times. (There was an easy way around Lake Butte des Mortes, but for some reason, The Old Man would never consider taking that route because it was a secondary road and not part of his plan.)
From Oshkosh, our weekend route took us north on US 45 towards Langlade County. In Shawano County, in the community of Tigerton, there was a steel through truss bridge that carried the highway across the Embarrass River. It’s long gone, replaced by a modern flat slab. In fact, if there weren’t a green sign that said, “Embarrass River” there, you’d have no idea you were crossing a bridge at all.
This through truss on WI 52 crosses the pristine Wolf River.
The approach to the bridge in Tigerton looked like this.
I loved that truss bridge. If I was sleeping in the back seat. The Old Man would wake me up so I could see the bridge. There was something comforting about that bridge, I have no idea what it was that I liked. Perhaps it was the superstructure, the tunnel of steel the enveloped the road. Maybe it was a real-life example of plastic model truss bridges that were a part of every kid’s dream model railroad. All I know is that I have always been fascinated by bridges.
This through truss bridge, on Wis 35 in Grant County, is
similar to the lost bridge in Tigerton.
There is a part of me that hates certain types of bridges. I’ve never been a big fan of suspension bridges, there is something about them that unnerves me when I cross them. From the relatively short Newell Bridge across the Ohio River to the “Mighty Mac” across the Straits of Mackinaw, to the San Francisco Bay Bridge, I get the willies when I drive across them. (The Golden Gate Bridge does not have that effect on me, go figure.) Bridges with steel grate decking also give me the willies, probably because I am conscious that only a mesh of steel is between me and the cold waters below. I shiver whenever I drive across a bascule bridge and the steel decking gives me a double-whammy on the Newell Bridge and the Mighty Mac.
This bascule bridge in Manitowoc, Wisconsin carries
westbound US 10 across the Manitowoc River. That is
open-grate steel decking that you see.
The Newell Bridge crosses the Ohio River between Newell, West Virginia and East Liverpool, Ohio. The over 100 year-old bridge is a combination of a steel deck, supported by a truss structure, that in turn, is suspended by cables from two towers. It is a privately owned toll bridge.
The Newell Bridge
All of these bridges have something in common - they are all pieces of American history. From relatively short stringer bridges, like the Lincoln Highway Bridge in Tama, Iowa to the George Westinghouse Memorial Bridge in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, these bridges are all a part of our highway heritage.
This bridge carried the Lincoln Highway across Mud Creek
in Tama, Iowa. Citizens were proud to be on the cross-country
highway and showed it by casting the highway name into the
balustrades of the bridge.
George Westinghouse Memorial Bridge, Turtle Creek, PA
Now, I’m not a civil engineer. I don’t know a sheer from a moment, nor do I care. I just love these old structures for their beautiful designs and historical value to the growth of America. Apparently, I’m not the only one.
James Baughn is a man from Missouri who also loves old bridges. Several years ago, he began a quest to document and preserve the historical bridges of Missouri. His quest soon expanded into a herculean task to document all the historical bridges in the United States. Many are already lost forever, like the 1927 Carquinez Straits Bridge in Vallejo, California. More are threatened.
James calls his site Bridge Hunter. With a team of bridge hunters (other nuts, like me) spread out across the country, thousands of historic (and not so historic) bridges are being documented on his site. If you’re not a big fan of old highways, old bridges or history in general, you won’t find much entertainment on his site. But if you have even the slightest positive feeling for nostalgia, click on the link above. You can view bridges by state, by county, by city, even by highway or design type.
Check it out - you may be inspired to become a bridge hunter, too!