Sadie’s Take on Delaware Ohio

This week’s blog review, continues to stick with the history of Ohio. With the debate over the Orange Road Bridge continuing, I thought it was a good time to review the Historic Ohio Iron and Steel Bridges blog by Ron Jones.

The blog and Jones are not new to the Web world – with his site OldOhioBridges around since 2004.

The blog - and its sister site - are devoted to helping identify and protect Ohio’s landmark bridges. From the Web sites opening paragraph:

This website catalogs the remaining iron and steel truss bridges erected in Ohio before World War II. Bridge photographs, maps of their locations and driving directions are provided. The John Bright Iron Bridge (1884) shown in the header is an example of the bridges documented.

Iron bridges emerged in America in the mid nineteenth century and replaced wooden bridges as the nation became more industrialized. In the 1890’s steel superseded iron as the construction material.  However, within a few decades the metal truss bridge lost its primacy to the emergence of reinforced concrete and continuous steel beam construction. 

I loved the photos and the really good map directions. Jones left a comment on our Orange Road Bridge post that says a lot about Delaware County’s preservation efforts.

“Delaware has lost virtually all its historic bridges and seems to be determined to continue in this manner. … They should take as a model the Big Run Road Truss Bridge in Knox county where grant money was sought and won for its preservation.”

Poignent words from Jones, but looking at the site it is true. While Morrow County to our north appears to be the leader in old bridge — Delaware has very few remaining. And of those remaining there are very few (actually one) that isn’t either falling apart or in danger of being demolished. An eye-opening read.

An associated site for those interested in Ohio’s historical bridges would be the Ohio Historic Bridge Association which is also hosted by Jones.

“Blog Review” is published weekly, on Saturday, on Sadie’s Take on Delaware Ohio.

Top photo is of the Orange Road Bridge north of Powell and the bottom image is off Flat Run Road just east of the Cochocton-and-Knox County line. (Both by Toby Boyce)

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