| Key Facts |
| Bridge Name | Facility Carried / Feature Intersected | Location | Structure Type | Construction Date / Builder or Contractor |
| Red Arrow Highway Bridge St. Joseph Street Bridge | Red Arrow Highway Over Brush Creek | Lawrence: Van Buren County, Michigan | Metal Stringer, Stationary | 1949 By: Unknown |
| Technical Facts |
| Structure Length | Roadway Width | Main Spans | Approach Spans |
| 37 Feet (11.2 Meters) | 28 Feet (8.5 Meters) | 1 | None |
This bridge was constructed in 1949, and like the Fisher Road Bridge, is worthy of inclusion on this website, not because of its good condition, but of its lack of good condition. Salt and a lack of paint contributed to this. Red Arrow Highway was US-12 prior to I-94's completion, and this bridge is a relic of the US-12 era. The fact that existing bridges are not properly maintained by their owners needs to be exposed. Maintenance often costs less raw money than replacement, although state incentives for replacement often discourage local government from maintaining bridges. Either way, replacement costs taxpayers more.
This page is also as good as any to point out another historic bridge Van Buren County demolished before it could be photo documented by this website. The bridge was an 1882 beam bridge on 44th Avenue, a rural road that is in the middle of nowhere on a road that nobody lives on. The road and bridge in question is the 44th Avenue over Paw Paw River Bridge, and yes that date is right: 1882, listed in the Historic Bridge Inventory. This would have been one of the oldest beam bridges in the entire state of Michigan! On a road that nobody uses, its restoration would have been a good choice, as there certainly is no heavy traffic on the road. Sufficient ridges in Michigan are supposed to be un-posted for weight limits, meaning optimally, all bridges must support 77 tons, thus the new 44th Avenue Bridge would be capable of supporting 77 tons. This is quite the waste of money. Any trucks would likely sink into the mud-hole of a road that 44th Avenue is before reaching the bridge! A few photos of the slab and 44th Avenue are included to show all this.
