Historic Bridges of Michigan and Elsewhere offers photos, information, and maps for historic bridges. While various structure types are represented, emphasis is placed on metal truss bridges. Geographic coverage extends well beyond Michigan, including Ontario, Pennsylvania and many other places. From rural concrete bridges in Michigan, to the movable truss bridges of downtown Chicago, this photo-oriented website is also a resource for information, while at the same time discussing the risk of demolition that many of these bridges face, as well as political problems that arise regarding historic bridges.
Click Here For The Latest Website Update (5-21-09)
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Website and narratives created and managed by Nathan Holth. Photographers/Field Team: Nathan Holth, Rick McOmber and Luke Gordon.
Bridge Spotlight:Brooklyn BridgeObstruction Risk!
The Brooklyn Bridge
is perhaps one of the most well-known bridges in the United States
and perhaps the world. The world's longest bridge in the world for
20 years after it was built, the bridge still stands as a massive,
impressive work of engineering that captures the attention of bridge
experts and the general public alike. Now, there are plans to
construct an eighteen story commercial building right next to the
Brooklyn Tower that threatens to obstruct the view of the bridge
structure, as well as the view of the city from on the bridge
itself. City officials are initially supporting this proposal that
will have a seriously adverse effect on one of the most famous and
historic bridges in the world.
Visit this page to learn more and
visit this page
for sample letters and addresses of city officials. |
Historic Bridges of Michigan
and Elsewhere Features
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 Featuring
historic bridge photos, maps and information, the Bridge Browser
is the main feature on this website. Maps, photos, and a discussion
are available for every bridge. Numerous 640x480 photos detail
each bridge's construction. Full-size wallpaper photos for greater
detail or use as a desktop background are also provided.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. A larger map is available here.  BridgeSeek,
an advanced search tool, is also available as an alternative
way to locate bridges on this website. |
An Introduction to Historic Bridges
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An informative presentation designed to introduce viewers to the world of historic bridges. An emphasis is placed on metal truss bridges. Utilizing photos and diagrams, the various terminology, construction, and configuration of historic bridges is discussed. This page also features some formal, yet easy-to-read, essays that further explore the historic bridge world. |
Historic Bridges Encyclopedia
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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. |
Historic Bridge Park: A Visitor's Guide
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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. |
Turning the Tide - A Campaign For Change: A Future For Historic Bridges
Historic Bridge Newsroom: Twitter
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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. |
Michigan Historic
Bridge Inventory: Metal Truss Bridges
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This is an informational table that lists nearly every truss bridge in Michigan as of 1995. The purpose of this is to allow people to find and visit truss bridges that may not be included in the Bridge Browser yet. Visitors can findings and submit photos. |
Links to Related Websites
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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. |
Historic Bridge NewsroomThe latest historic bridge news presented through Twitter. The below viewer requires the latest version of Adobe Flash, or you can visit the main Twitter page. |
Website UpdatesMay 21, 2009: Bridge Spotlight narrative updated to include a threat to Brooklyn Bridge, which is a plan to build an eighteen story building next to the Brooklyn tower, obstructing the view of the bridge. Details at this website on how you can help speak against this.
May 20, 2009 - Bridges and Photos AddedVisit this link to see the list of latest bridge pages that are updated. Some bridge pages are new, others are old pages that have had photos added and perhaps a few revisions to the narrative. Either way, there is something new on each page in the list. April 23, 2009 - Frederick County, MD Added, and More Ingham County, MI BridgesFrederick County, Maryland makes a debut on this website with well over half of the county's truss bridges covered in this update. You will find a considerable list of rehabilitated truss bridges to view there. This update includes such attractions as an iron bowstring, a couple 1870s through trusses, a stone arch, and many more nice truss bridges. Several bridges were also added to Ingham County, Michigan. April 21, 2009 - Pomeroy Mason Bridge Demolition Alert!Visitors: Please send me photos of the demolition of this bridge, for addition to this website. Photos showing the bridge in the river after the actual explosions are also highly desired. You will be given credit for any photo you submit that is added.March 30, 2009 - TwitterAs a service to the historic bridge community, historicbridges.org presents a special Twitter page designed to be a news ticker and list of links to historic bridges in the news. Using the easy-update format of Twitter, this (still experimental) page is intended to be a replacement for the abandoned http://www.iceandcoal.org/bridges/bridgenews.html page. Available news and links will undoubtedly be biased to bridges found on historicbridges.org, because those are the bridges this website is familiar with, but the idea is that any bridge news is fair game for this page. It is intended to be primarily a list of news links, but info-only snippets may appear for bridges that news exists for, even if no online article is available.The Twitter page is not a historicbridges.org website update list, website updates will continue to be posted here. Click here to view the new Twitter page. |
Below is an interactive clickable map that allows you to access the bridges on this website. Clicking on a state whose name is in blue letters will take you to the county list for that state or province. A clickable text list is available to the right of the map. Below the map a link is available to a text-only list of every county covered on this website.
A text-only browsing option is available here. BridgeSeek, an advanced search tool is also available.
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Michigan Ontario Illinois Indiana Kentucky Massachusetts Ohio New York Pennsylvania Tennessee Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin |
