About Historic Bridges of Michigan and Elsewhere
To provide to the public photos, information, and maps for historic bridges, especially metal truss bridges, in an attempt to share with others their beauty and history, while at the same time revealing the frequent demolition of historic bridges, and suggesting restorative options for historic bridges.
Historic Bridges of Michigan and Elsewhere was founded in 2003, and is a website dedicated to documenting historic bridges, primarily through photography, but also through research and factual information. A wide variety of historic bridge types are represented on this website, although metal truss bridges receive special attention. This site also aims to provide a resource for others to learn about historic bridges, view photos of them, and perhaps visit them if they still stand. This site also exists to educate the public and raise awareness about the high number of rare, beautiful, and historic bridges that are being thoughtlessly demolished by those who own them, such as road commissions, departments of public works, and departments/ministries of transportation. It seeks to expose a waste of taxpayer dollars that often goes against the wishes of the communities the bridges are in.
1. To raise awareness of historic bridges, and develop a public interest in preserving these bridges, rather than destroying them, through an extensive database of historic bridges located in Michigan and other nearby places.
2. To provide detailed maps and directions to the historic bridges, so that people can visit and enjoy them.
3. To provide technical photos as well as artistic photos, to showcase the beauty and engineering of these structures.
4. To maintain pages for demolished bridges on this website, to preserve those bridges at least in memory, through photos and information.
Historic bridges are among the most threatened of historic structures in North America, and their frequent demolition is often also an example of how taxpayer dollars are being wasted to demolish and replace these historic structures at a higher cost.
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The following excepts from the National Trust for Historic Preservation about historic bridges in the state of Indiana reveal an attitude and event reflected across the United States. "From 1987 to 1999, poor planning and conflicting interests led to the loss of 62 percent of Indiana's metal bridges built between 1860 and 1930." "While communities appreciate the historic value of their bridges, planners often recommend demolition before seeking local input. The end result: historic bridges are being torn down even though rehabilitation is generally cheaper than new construction." "While appreciation for Indiana's covered bridges has increased, the destruction of other types of historic bridges has escalated at an alarming rate." "Most of the historic bridges are threatened by county governments' drive to replace them with modern structures at the recommendation of consulting engineers. Replacement of historic bridges with new ones typically costs taxpayers much more than restoration, and it destroys landmarks that are an integral part of local communities throughout the state." "Indiana needs a bridge preservation plan that takes a comprehensive look at these endangered resources throughout the state and sets clear priorities for preservation, with funding to allow for rehabilitation. Preservation advocates must be consulted as individual bridge projects are considered, to ensure that preservation and rehabilitation alternatives are fully explored." |
Historic Bridges of Michigan and Elsewhere uses a unique system to asses the historic significance of bridges on the website, called the Historic Significance Rating. This page also explains the range of bridges included on this website.
Click here to learn more about the Historic Significance Rating.
This site purposely does not document any wooden covered bridges in the United States of America. Covered bridges are protected and funded generously by private individuals and government programs. A goal of this site is to try to encourage those same sources of money to be pumped into the metal truss bridge population, which are not protected by federal government programs like covered bridges. There are also numerous other covered bridge websites on the Internet, and to document covered bridges on this site would most likely be redundant.
Statistics show that over the past fifteen years metal truss bridge populations have fallen drastically. If current rates continue, all truss bridges not preserved will be gone around 2020. Truss bridges have become rare, and it is a form of discrimination that covered bridges receive federal funding for preservation, while the only federal funding that truss bridges receive is for demolition and construction of a modern concrete slab. The few preserved truss bridges are only saved because of large private donations from concerned people or massive community uproar. Government funding should be used to preserve truss bridges in the same way it does for covered bridges.
Coverage of this website is centered in Michigan, although extensive coverage of select areas can be found throughout the Midwest and the Northeast of the United States, as well as in Ontario.
As of March 2006, a "last visited date" for all bridges added to the website is being added to bridge pages. The point of this is to help people assess how recently an HBME team member was at the location. A bridge that hasn't been visited for some time might mean that something has changed that HBME is unaware of. For instance, the weight limit listed on the website might be different than is at the bridge, if engineers have lowered it since HBME visited. It also might mean the bridge has been demolished or has collapsed, despite the fact that HBME has it listed as still standing. This new system will help visitors make educated decisions when reviewing the information on the website. Currently, you will find this "Date Last Visited" on only the newly added bridges to this website, or bridge pages that have been updated.
I welcome visitors to email any historic bridge photos they have of interest to me. I am especially interested in old photos for bridges already on this website. If I use your photo on my website, I will credit you (or whoever took the photo) as the photographer in the photo gallery or on the main page depending on where the photos appear. Some visitors may be curious if I accept photos for adding additional bridges to the Bridge Browser database like bridges.midwestplaces.com does. I do indeed accept submissions, but adding the bridge is at my discretion. I do not like to depart too far from the coverage area defined by my own bridge trips. I also prefer to have multiple photos, submitted at decent size. Preferably, this is what I am after: I am interested in large-size (1024x768 or larger), including overview photos as well as detail photos. Feel free to use my other bridge pages as a guide to what I am, interested in, keeping in mind that you don't have to take quite as many photos as I do! I am particularly interested in submissions from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as well as southwestern Ontario. Finally keep in mind that I will not add wooden covered bridges for any reason. An exception is if a wooden covered bridge has a non-wooden approach span, I may add the approach span as a separate structure on the website.
-Nathan Holth, Author/Webmaster
With the exception of photos submitted by website visitors, pretty much everything you see on the website was done by me, Nathan Holth. I have been interested in bridges ever since I was a little kid. However, the collapse of a closed truss bridge in 2002 near where I live sort of lit a spark in me that drove me to learn about, find, and photograph more examples of truss bridges. As I learned more about how diverse truss bridges and historic bridges in general were, as well as how at-risk they were, my interest grew. I finally decided to match my interest in computers with my interest in bridges and create a website. I used a graphics editing tool to create graphic elements for the website. Since then, my web design, and historic bridge knowledge has continued to grow. I have become very passionate about historic bridges, and you will find a lot of emotion in many of my bridge pages on this site.
While the actual website and all photos that are otherwise noted are my own work, the website you see here today would not be what it is today without the support from two fellow "pontists," who have become close friends of mine. Both have helped me when I am out in the "field" on a bridge trip seeking additional bridges to add to the website. Both have helped me by assisting with transportation for some bridge trips, a costly endeavor due to the distance that must be covered during a bridge trip.
Rick McOmber is one of my invaluable assistants in this website project. With a passion for the beauty and history of historic truss bridges, he has helped me out by finding out where bridges of interest are. He has contacted owners of bridges to determine where any remaining historic bridges might be. Rick enjoys traveling outside of Michigan to more truss-rich states such as Ohio, and is helping me in my efforts to expand the website to expand into the "elsewhere" category. We are planning a number of trips together to take us out of Michigan into some of the richest historic bridge regions in the country.
Luke Gordon is my assistant and friend who helps me out mostly while visiting the bridges. Luke is interested in engineering and has an interest in restoring historic bridges. He has undertaken a project to reuse the guardrails from the Nicol Road Bridge on a private bridge crossing, which we saved from the dumpster. Luke has also helped me by giving me numerous suggestions on how to improve the look and feel of the site. Without his help this site would not be as nice as I think it is today.
While many different people have been gracious in helping me through providing me with information, photos, and other assistance, these people have been of particular help to me.
| Name | Profession (Relating to Historic Bridges) | Contributions |
| Lloyd Baldwin | Michigan Department of Transportation Historian | Provided me with the Michigan Historic Bridge Inventory, and has provided other assistance in locating bridges and information. |
| Michael Clark | St. Clair County Road Commission, County Highway Engineer | Providing me extensive information and history for St. Clair County Bridges, including technical plans for Indian Trail Road Bridge and Wadhams Road Bridge. |
| Nate Clark | St. Clair County Road Commission, County Highway Engineer | Providing me extensive information and history for St. Clair County Bridges, including technical plans for Indian Trail Road Bridge and Wadhams Road Bridge. |
| Luke Gordon | Historic Bridge Enthusiast | Accompanying me on some bridge hunting trips, assisting with costs and transportation associated with some trips. |
| Frank Hatfield | Retired Professor at Michigan State University, Civil Engineering Department | Reviewing content on website, offering support and preservation advice. Assistance in technical descriptions of bridges. |
| James and Susan Holth | My Parents | Put up with me wanting to stop at bridges during family trips, and even helping me spot bridges on these trips. |
| Rick McOmber | Historic Bridge Enthusiast / Photographer | Teaming up with me for some bridge hunting trips, particularly long-distance and out-of-state trips, and sharing the costs associated with those trips. |
| Vern Mesler | Historic Bridge Park of Calhoun County: Project Manager; Adjunct Welding Instructor at Lansing Community College | Reviewing content on website, offering support and preservation advice. Keeps me up to date on Historic Bridge Park. |
| Todd Wilson | Historic Bridge Enthusiast / Photographer | Providing photos, and assisting with trip planning and identifying extant bridges in the Pennsylvania area. |
Legal Status of HBME
Historic Bridges of Michigan and Elsewhere (referred to in this document as HBME hereafter) is a volunteer project, and is not currently a 501(c) organization of any kind. HBME is not funded by any business or governmental interests.
Privacy Policy
No personally identifiable information is automatically collected from you by this website. Visitors may supply personal information to HBME by contacting HBME by email or the website's Contact page. Such personally identifiable information is never automatically collected, and is available to HBME only if visitors physically type such information into an email or form. Any personally identifiable information collected in this manner will only be used to respond to questions or fulfill requests. No information will be shared with advertisers, spammers etc.
As many websites on the Internet do, anonymous information may be collected when you visit this website. Such information includes, but may not be limited to the following. One way HBME collects such information is an HTTP_USER_AGENT. This is a string of text that your internet browser contains and sends to websites you visit, and usually lists the name of the browser and operating system you are using. A common example: HTTP_USER_AGENT: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061010 Firefox/2.0. Another type of anonymous information collected is referrer information. This identifies what website you used to get to the HBME website, such as Google or Yahoo, and such a listing may also contain what search terms you used that returned the HBME website as a result. Such information collected is only used to ensure that the HBME website content is best designed for the type of browser most visitors are using, and also to ensure that the HBME website is easy for visitors to find in search engines. None of this information is personally identifiable.
Your use of this website indicates your acceptance to this privacy policy.
Protections for website interface graphics and use of logo.
All HBME website interface graphics, including but not limited to buttons, horizontal bars, and logos are the property of HBME and may not be reused without express written permission. However the main logo, available below, may be used in two ways. The HBME logo may be used on any website or presentation to credit HBME for content used, or to provide a link to the HBME website. The logo, available by clicking on the logo thumbnail below, may be resized for use, but may not be altered in any other way. The logo may not be used for any other purpose than those listed above, unless express written permission is given by HBME.
HBME reserves all rights to all of its content. Absolutely no content on the HBME website, including photos, may ever appear on Wikipedia, any website based off of Wikipedia.com, including but not limited to www.answers.com, or any unregulated visitor-compiled website for any reason without the express written permission of HBME. An exception is that a hyperlink to any HTM or PHP page on HBME is permitted in the External Links or Works Cited section of a Wikipedia article. Directly linking to images is never allowed for any reason on any website. Textual content on HBME may be quoted or paraphrased, but this must be done in strict accordance with an acceptable citation method that allows viewers to quickly trace that content to the HBME website.
Use of content in presentations.
Special privileges are granted to those who wish to use information and photos contained on HBME in presentations promoting the preservation or increasing public knowledge of historic bridges, whether a specific bridge or historic bridges in general. Please contact HBME when doing so, as we like to track when our content is used to gauge whether visitors find it of use. HBME is also happy to work with you to ensure that you can freely use content from HBME to create seamless presentation, while also making sure that HBME receives some form of credit. Exceptions to the below requirements may be granted if your presentation has a specific need, but such exceptions are only allowed with express permission.
All photos on the website that are not explicitly credited are the property of Nathan Holth, Rick McOmber, or Luke Gordon. These photos may be used in such presentations without question. With these photos, simply including a reference to the HBME website during the presentation, perhaps including the logo at the end of the presentation is sufficient credit, and may be of benefit to your viewers who may find the HBME content of interest. However, with photos explicitly credited to someone else, the express written permission of HBME or the owner of said photo(s) is needed before they can be used, as there may be specific restrictions with such photos.
Use of content in all other works not mentioned.
HBME textual content may may be quoted or paraphrased when a standard citation method is properly used that allows readers to identify HBME as the source. Use of photos required the express permission.
