Milford Bridge

Most Recent Visit To Bridge: August 2, 2007

This five panel bridge is among the most fascinating pony truss bridges ever seen. Its design is archaic and unusual. It features outriggers that include star-shaped rods. Star-shaped rods were commonly found in the early truss era, often showing up on 1870s bowstring truss bridges. It features top chord connections that have diagonals braced to the top chord using bolts instead of the pins. Top chord and end posts feature v-lacing on both sides of the built-up beam which is uncommon. All of these features point straight to an extremely old bridge that dates perhaps from 1878-1889. Compare this bridge to the Harmon Creek Bridge in Washington County.

Sound great, except for the fact that there are plaques on the bridge that read "1900 Walker Brothers Contractors." The idea that a bridge that looks like this one dating to 1900 seems a bit far-fetched. Thus, it is quite possible that the bridge does indeed date to a pre-1900 date, and that the bridge was either relocated or sold as a "used bridge" by Walker Brothers in 1900 to the township for re-use on TR-486. When they sold/moved it, they may have added their plaque to the bridge. However, on the other side of the argument, one might point to another 1900 Walker Brothers bridge, the Moser Road Bridge, and note that it also has unusual details to, and conclude with a much more simpler explanation: the Walker Brothers built weird bridges. Indeed, some companies did not join the crowd as quickly as others, continuing to use their own special construction parts and designs that did not look like what most bridges of the 1900 period looked like. It is perhaps possible that this is the story as well.