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Panther Creek Private Bridge

Panther Creek Private Bridge

Primary Photographer(s): Nathan Holth

Bridge Documented: May 7, 2006 and June 6, 2014

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Facility Carried / Feature Intersected
Private Drive Over Panther Creek
Location
Rural: Miami County, Ohio: United States
Construction Date and Builder / Engineer
By Builder/Contractor: Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio
Rehabilitation Date
Not Available or Not Applicable
Main Span Length
Not Available
Structure Length
80.0 Feet (24.4 Meters)
Roadway Width
16 Feet (4.88 Meters)
Spans
1 Main Span(s)
Inventory Number
55XXXX3

Historic Significance Rating (HSR)
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Bridge Documentation

This bridge carries a private driveway over Panther Creek, a short distance from the Owens Road Bridge. Some rumors were that this bridge was the previous bridge at Owens Road which was moved here in 1913. However other sources indicate the previous Owens Road Bridge washed out in a floor in 1913.

This bridge is one of the rarest types of metal bridges, the bowstring truss. Most bridges of this type date to the 1870s. Like most bowstrings from this period, this example has unusual details at the connections (evidence that this bridge was built during a period of experimentation in bridge design), and with this bridge most of the unusual details involve the bottom chord connections. At the same time, this bridge has some details that are less unusual and more like the standards that arose in the 1880s. For example, the top chord connections have traditional eyebar diagonals held in place by a simple pin. The top chord is a traditionally composed built-up box beam. These more standard details may suggest this is a later ca. 1880 example of a bowstring truss. It appears to be the work of the Wrought Iron Bridge Company. Most bowstrings remaining by this company have unusual columns for the top chord, but the company's catalogues did advertise bowstrings with box beam top chords as well, and this bridge appears to be a rare surviving example of that. The bridge's historic integrity is outstanding, the only loss seems to be that one of the struts is missing. The bridge only has one, it would originally have had two.

As of 2014, the owner of the property had erected some manner of welded truss bridge next to the bowstring truss, effectively bypassing the historic bridge. Fortunately, the owner appears to be leaving the historic bowstring truss standing, and has not demolished it.

Information and Findings From Ohio's Historic Bridge Inventory

Setting/Context

The bridge carries a private drive over a stream at 8455 Sugar Grove Road in a rural setting with scattered modern and period houses. The bridge serves a 1.5-story, vernacular house (ca. 1920-30) on the north side of the stream.

Physical Description

The 1-span, 80'-long, 6-panel bowstring, thru truss bridge is supported on stone abutments. The upper chord is a built-up section of toe-out channels with cover plate and battens. There is upper-lateral bracing of laced angles between the arch crowns at midspan. The verticals are laced angles, and the diagonals are loop-welded eyebars. The lower-chords are bars with riveted splice plates. The upper-chord connections are pins. The lower-chord connections are formed by cast-iron connecting pieces that rest atop the built-up fishbelly floorbeams and have cradles to hold two pins for the diagonal connections. The lower vertical connections are formed by bolts that pass through the flanges of the floorbeams. Another cast-iron piece rests atop the lower chord bars, forming a spacer as well as a cradle for looping an inverted U-shaped hanger for the floorbeam.

Integrity

The bridge has integrity of materials and design. It is unknown if this is its original location.

Summary of Significance

The ca. 1880 bowstring truss bridge is a technologically significant example of its type/design based on its state of completeness and details, especially the lower-chord connection (Criterion C). The lower-chord connection is similar in style to documented examples built by the Wrought Iron Bridge Company, but it is not the patented tubular upper chord associated with the company's earlier work from the 1870s (see, e.g., 5930197). This bridge may represent a transition design from the tubular upper chords of the 1870s to a more conventional upper chord of channels with cover plate and battens. This is the only identified bowstring truss bridge in the inventory with this combination of details.

Bowstring trusses are characterized by arched top chords and a trussed or lattice web. They rank among the rarest and most technologically significant of 19th-century metal truss designs since they appeared early in the evolution of iron bridge development and were almost always based on the patents or proprietary designs of bridge builders and engineers. The progenitor of the form was the famed engineer Squire Whipple of New York, who built the first example in 1840 over the Erie Canal at Utica. After the Civil War, Ohio was a center for the development of the bowstring with its concentration of metal bridge-building companies. Companies such Wrought Iron Bridge, Champion Bridge, Massillon Bridge, and King Iron Bridge built their reputations on successful bowstring designs with a dizzying number of variant ways of forming and connecting the truss members. The companies emerged in time to fill the burgeoning demand for an economical, prefabricated bridge for use on American roads. Bowstring trusses thus document this exceptionally inventive and technologically significant period in the development of American metal trusses from the 1860s to early 1880s. The ODOT inventory has identified 22 surviving examples dating from ca. 1864 to 1880 (Phase 1A, 2008).

Justification

The bridge is one of the 22 extant bowstring truss bridges that survive in the state. Having so many is remarkable, and even though they are "common" based on their numbers, each is an important and irreplaceable record of the development of the metal truss bridge and the ingenuity associated with the Ohio industrial development. The bridge has high significance.

Bridge Considered Historic By Survey: Yes

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Photo Galleries and Videos: Panther Creek Private Bridge

 

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2014 Bridge Photo-Documentation

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2014 Bridge Photo-Documentation

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View Photo Gallery

2006 Bridge Photo-Documentation

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View Photo Gallery

2006 Bridge Photo-Documentation

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Maps and Links: Panther Creek Private Bridge

Coordinates (Latitude, Longitude):

Search For Additional Bridge Listings:

Bridgehunter.com: View listed bridges within 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) of this bridge.

Bridgehunter.com: View listed bridges within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of this bridge.

HistoricBridges.org Bridge Browser: View listed bridges within 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) of this bridge.

HistoricBridges.org Bridge Browser: View listed bridges within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of this bridge.

2021 National Bridge Inventory: View listed bridges within 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) of this bridge.

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