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The HistoricBridges.org Team:

Nathan Holth - Author, Webmaster, and Photographer.

Rick McOmber - Photographer and Content Advisor.

Luke Gordon - Engineering / Construction Consultant and Photographer.

Formerly Historic Bridges of Michigan and Elsewhere, Historicbridges.org offers professional photo-documentation, information, and advocacy for all types of historic bridges except covered bridges. North American coverage radiates outward from Michigan, with Pennsylvania, Chicago, and Ontario being coverage highlights as well. HistoricBridges.org places an unparalleled priority on professional photo-documentation of each bridge presented. In addition, HistoricBridges.org strongly advocates for the reform of surface transportation policy and fights to increase awareness of the feasibility of historic bridge preservation.
Click Here For The Latest Website Update (3-18-10)


 

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Historicbridges.org Features

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Featuring historic bridge photo-documentation and information, the Bridge Browser is the main feature on this website. The map shown here is an interactive clickable map that allows you to access the bridges on this website. Places listed in blue text have bridges available. BridgeSeek, an advanced search tool, is also available. Also, a standalone version of the Bridge Browser is available.

BridgeSeek Search: Click Here To Begin

Browse All Bridges In Google Maps (Under Construction, 80% of bridges mapped)


United States
California
Connecticut
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kentucky
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
New Jersey
Ohio
New York
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Canada
British Columbia
Ontario
Québec
Worldwide
Brazil
United Kingdom and Ireland



 Interactive Map of Available States and Provinces

 Bridge Spotlight:

Approximate Time Remaining Until All United States Historic Metal Truss Bridges Not Preserved Are Demolished:

 Pattullo Bridge

At Risk


Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com
/photos/dennissylvesterhurd/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 An appropriate bridge to consider during the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Pattullo Bridge is located Greater Vancouver District, British Columbia, Canada. It carries King George Highway (BC-1A and BC-99A) Over Fraser River between New Westminster and Surrey. The bridge is an example of one of the more beautiful bridge types conceived, a steel trussed through arch. The main arch span is designed such that it smoothly transitions into the deck truss spans which provide an approach to the main span. The bridge is historically and technologically significant as a relatively uncommon structure type, but most particularly as one of the largest and oldest bridges remaining in Greater Vancouver. It also has a high level of historic integrity with no major alterations to the arch or deck truss spans noted. The bridge was built from steel that was rolled in Canadian and British mills and fabricated in Vancouver. Greater Vancouver has preserved very few of its bridges, and mundane, modern cable-stayed bridges dominate the landscape. The Pattullo Bridge is owned by an agency called Translink, whose sole existence is to serve Metro Vancouver. This agency would do well to consider the value of this heritage bridge to the region. The Olympics will not be in Vancouver every year, and the preservation of bridges like the Pattullo will help keep the list of reasons for tourist dollars to flow into the region as long as possible. Current plans to demolish this heritage bridge should be reconsidered.

Click here to visit the page for the Pattulo Bridge.

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An Introduction to Historic Bridges

An Introduction to Historic Truss Bridges Informative presentations designed to introduce viewers to the world of historic bridges. Utilizing photos and diagrams, the various terminology, construction, and configuration of historic bridges is discussed. A presentation on inspecting historic bridges is also available. This page also features some formal, yet easy-to-read, essays that further explore the historic bridge world.
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Historic Bridges Encyclopedia

Historic Bridges Encyclopedia This feature contains articles relating to historic bridges, as well as information about entire categories of historic bridges. This section also includes some non-bridge related photos. Some of the major features include:
- An all-in-one collection of some of the best bridge photos available in wallpaper size.
- A look at historic metal water towers, which share a lot of design characteristics with truss bridges.
- A collection of interesting photos of the natural world.
- An in-depth look at curved chord through girder bridges.
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Historic Bridge Park: A Visitor's Guide

Historic Bridge Park: A Visitor's Guide A comprehensive visitor's guide to this unique park located in Calhoun County, Michigan whose focus is the restored metal truss bridges within the park. Contains maps, photos, and links to bridge browser pages for the historic bridges within the park.
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Turning the Tide

A Campaign For Change: A Future For Historic Bridges

Turning The Tide Your help is needed! Help an important piece of historic bridge legislation revised and passed in 2007 to increase historic bridge preservation: A guide to write letters to U.S. government officials and legislators. These proposed changes did not pass in 2006 because the government felt that not enough citizens had spoken up in favor of historic bridges. Help change that!
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Historic Bridge Newsroom: Twitter

Michigan Historic Bridge Inventory: Metal Truss Bridges Presented through the convenient format of Twitter, the Historic Bridge Newsroom is a simple collection of links to current news articles about historic bridges, as well as word-of-mouth news snippets. Coverage includes any historic bridges in the United States and Canada, which may or may not be in the Bridge Browser. This is a human-edited list of links; therefore coverage may be biased to the areas that those team members who maintain it are familiar with.
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Links to Related Websites

Links to Related Websites Features a collection of external links to other bridge websites on the Internet. Many other bridge enthusiast websites feature bridges from areas not covered by this website, and links to those websites can be found here.
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News and Updates

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Preservation of Historic Iron and Steel Bridges and Other Metal Structures Workshop: March 2010 - Register Now!

Lansing Community College of Lansing, Michigan and Vern Mesler are inviting all interested individuals to register and attend all or part of a three day workshop entitled Preservation of Historic Iron and Steel Bridges and Other Metal Structures occurring in March 2010. Five $600 scholarships are also available for students to attend this workshop. These workshops would be of interest and value to historians/preservationists, as well as engineering students.

-Three Day Workshop Registration and application for the $600 scholarship available at the Lansing Community College Website: http://lcc.edu/tet/welding.
- More information on the workshop is available at www.historicbridgerestoration.com

Many historic metal artifacts and structures from the turn of the 20th Century, notably metal truss bridges, are aging and becoming deteriorated, producing a growing awareness among the public for a need to restore these important historic structures. These workshops will introduce engineers to the information and skills they need to design solutions and knowledgeably work with contractors to restore historic metals and historic metal truss bridges. For historians, they will introduce them to the both the problems and solutions that are needed to approach the preservation of historic metal structures, and present them with hands-on preservation experiences.

Website Updates

March 18, 2010 - Drawings and Patents Added.

Measured drawings or patents have been added to the following bridge pages:

http://www.historicbridges.org/ohio/roebling

http://www.historicbridges.org/ohio/brentspence

http://www.historicbridges.org/illinois/sbrr

http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/phrailb

http://www.historicbridges.org/pennsylvania/roch_mon_rr

http://www.historicbridges.org/kentucky/miltonmadison

http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/ibrailstationary

http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/ibrailvertical

March 6, 2010 - Work Progressing To Create Google Maps Feature.

Work is ongoing to produce a new way to find bridges on HistoricBridges.org, by producing an interactive Google Map that maps out the locations of all bridges. 80% of all bridges on HistoricBridges.org are now present on the map. New York, West Virginia, Ohio, and Indiana are the only major coverage areas for which bridges need to be mapped.

February 23, 2010 - Pattullo Bridge Added As Spotlight.

Just in time for the Olympics, added a page for the doomed Pattullo Bridge in Greater Vancouver. One of the last large historic bridges in the Greater Vancouver District, this  bridge is nevertheless slated for demolition despite its beauty and heritage value.

February 5, 2010 - England Bowstring Bridge added.

Added a page for the demolished Bowstring Bridge in England.

February 2, 2010 - Main Page Interface Update and 29 Bridges Added

One of the least organized bridge updates ever released, this update includes a group of bridges from various locations. Many of these photos were submitted by website visitors have been sitting on a to-do list for a long time. Thanks to all who contributed. Also due to the increasing website coverage range, a new clickable map on the main page is introduced and the main page layout has been reorganized to suit this new map.

View a list of recently added bridges.

January 29, 2010 - Pennsylvania Historic Bridge Inventory Search Feature

The Historic Bridge Inventory from Pennsylvania is now incorporated into a searchable database on this website which should be more convenient that the forms PennDOT offers. 

Search Pennsylvania's Historic Bridge Inventory.

January 20, 2010 - San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge

Added the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. The bridge is being introduced as part of HistoricBridges.org's Global Heritage project with Public Photo Compilation photo galleries, but the real reason this bridge has been added is so  HistoricBridges.org could offer scathing  commentary on the project that will demolish half of one of the largest and most important bridges in the country.

View a list of recently added bridge pages.

January 14, 2010 - Bridge Drawings Added

The following bridges have had measured drawings added to their pages. These drawings were adapted from either HAER documentation or actual bridge plans.

http://www.historicbridges.org/other/6th/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/mead/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/newyork/ouaquaga/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/newyork/brooklyn/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/newyork/nubia/index.htm 
http://www.historicbridges.org/massachusetts/ponakin/index.php
http://www.historicbridges.org/massachusetts/atherton/index.php
http://www.historicbridges.org/ohio/zoarville/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/maryland/bollman/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/newjersey/clinton/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/newyork/newfield/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/triplewhipple/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/pennsylvania/pa1029/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/newyork/aldrichchange/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/newyork/watkinsglen/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/truss/venango/index.htm
http://www.historicbridges.org/pennsylvania/619saegertown/index.htm
 http://www.historicbridges.org/pennsylvania/619south/index.htm

   

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