These are photographic updates along the Ohio River, from Ashland, Kentucky to Louisville and some points in between.

 

I start out with the Ben Williamson Bridge - in green, and the Simon Willis Bridge - in blue, in Ashland. The Ben Williamson Bridge was constructed from 1928 to 1932 and was a tolled facility until they were lifted in 1941. The bridge was rehabilitated in 1999 with a new driving deck and structural improvements, and was painted a battleship gray color. In 2007, it was repainted green.

 

 

The Simon Willis Bridge is newer, having been constructed between 1981 to 1985. For years, a second span over the Ohio River was proposed elsewhere in the city, to supplement or replace the Ben Williamson Bridge. Originally, the discussion centered on a bridge at 45th Street to connect to an Ashland bypass and US 52 in Ohio. Downtown merchants preferred a downtown bridge. And after US 60 south of Ashland to Interstate 64 was widened, this only congested traffic further on the Ben Williamson, which led to the decision to construct a parallel span in downtown.

 

The Simon Willis Bridge was repainted in a blue hue in 2007. Combined with the Ben Williamson's green, they comprise the city of Ashland's colors.

 

 

In nearby Ironton, Ohio is the historic OH 75 tunnel. Constructed in 1866 by Dr. B.F. Cory as a way for horses and buggies to access the iron furnaces in rural Lawrence County, the tunnel  was bored through sandstone and limestone. In 1915, the tunnel was enlarged by the Mahlbe Brothers to 30-feet wide and was enough to accommodate two automobile lanes.It was closed and sealed in 1960 when a four-lane bypass was constructed to the immediate west as part of the OH 93 realignment and US 52 freeway construction development.

 

In 1989, the tunnel was reopened by the Ironton Lions Club as a haunted tunnel.

 

 

The Norfolk Western Railroad Osborn Run Bridge is located in Hanging Rock, Ohio and was constructed originally in 1901. In 1941, the bridge was given a concrete lining and other structural improvements.

 

A spur up Osborn Run once left from the bridge site to serve Hanging Rock Iron Company, but it has been long abandoned.

 

The bridge was converted into a roadway when the rail line was relocated further south when the US 52 freeway was constructed in 1960.

 

 

The Norfolk Western Railroad Little Scioto River Bridge is a Baltimore Warren through truss over the Little Scioto River. Paralleling it is the US 52 freeway, which was completed in 1964. Because of dimming light, I was not able to hike over to the bridge - that is for another day.

 

 

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Bridge over the Ohio River between Limeville, Kentucky and Sciotoville, Ohio was constructed from 1914 to 1917 by the McClintick-Marshall Construction Company. The structurally massive railroad bridge was designed by two famous American Civil Engineers, Gustav Lindenthal, D.Sc., the Consulting Engineer and David Barnard Steinman, D.Sc., the designer and stress analyst. It was the longest continuous truss bridge in the world until 1935 and is still the prototype for continuous trusses today. I covered the history behind it in an earlier post.

 

 

The Gallia Pike Little Scioto River Bridge was constructed in 1926-1927 and carried US 52 until 1964 when the adjoining freeway was completed through Sciotoville. The span was rehabilitated in 1993.

 

 

Remnants of the pre-1926 bridge are still visible, such as the stone abutments and old roadway alignment.

 

 

Not much can be said about the John A. Roebling Bridge other than it was constructed from 1856 to 1866, and was used as a model for Roebling's next project, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. I used the advantages of evening light to capture three new photographs of this historic suspension span.

 

 

The Clark Memorial Bridge carries US 31 over the Ohio River between Louisville and New Albany, Indiana. Design work for the bridge began in September 1926 after much delay, and construction on the four-lane cantilever began in June 1928.  It was finished in October 1929 and was tolled until 1946.

 

 

I end with the Fourteenth Street Bridge, which connects Louisville to Clarksville, Indiana.

 

The first proposal for crossing of the Ohio at Louisville came early, when James Guthrie formed the Ohio Bridge Company to construct a bridge in 1829. An architect from New England, Ithiel Town, was hired to design a wooden bridge, and a cornerstone was laid in 1836 by Twelfth Street in Louisville. The Panic of 1837 stopped further work, and additional capital could not be secured. An additional attempt was made in the 1850s, but the project was thereafter known as "Guthrie's Folly."

 

In the 1860s, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) and the Jeffersonville and Indianapolis Railroad (J&I) both desired a railroad crossing over the Ohio River. On February 17, 1865, the United States Congress authorized the construction of a bridge at Louisville, as there were no bridges across the Ohio River at Cincinnati or any place westward. The L&N financed the Louisville Bridge Company, and work on the new bridge began on August 1, 1867. Albert Fink served as architect and used his patented Fink truss design for the project. The design called for a minimum span length of 330 feet and one track. Stone for the piers was sourced from Bardstown Junction, Kentucky and Utica, Indiana.

 

At the time of its completion on February 12, 1870, the L&N Fourteenth Street Bridge was the longest iron bridge in the United States, featuring 27 spans over one mile. The bridge also included a swing span. Span lengths varied from 352 feet to 380 feet, and was high enough so that steamboats could make their way underneath via the Portland Canal. The height was so high that it added $150,000 to the construction cost, which totalled $2,003,696.27. Unfortunately, 56 men were killed and 80 injured during the construction process.

 

The Pennsylvania Railroad purchased the L&N's 60% ownership of the bridge, and commanded control of the crossing in the mid-1870s after acquiring the J&I tracks between Jeffersonville and Indianapolis. By 1882, the Pennsylvania Bridge was used up to 150 times per day, with communications controlled by semaphore. But by the 1900s, the bridge was being stressed - with 300 trains running on the bridge per day. Between May 1916 and January 1919, a new single-track steel superstructure was installed on the old stone piers. One pier on the Indiana side was removed, and that span length was increased to 643.10 feet in length which improved river navigation. A lift span replaced the swing span above the canal.

 

In 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central Railroad merged to become Penn Central. Eight years later, it was placed under Conrail. The Louisville and Indiana Railroad purchased the Jeffersonville to Indianapolis line and bridge from Conrail in March 1994.

 

Awesome.