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This bridge is a pin connected Pratt through truss, and is a two-span structure. Each span is composed of eight panels. The deck is typical of Ohio, with a wooden deck and a layer of asphalt forming the wearing surface. There is v-lacing on the vertical members, and the portal bracing is a lattice design. Original railings do not remain on the bridge, and have been replaced with modern Armco guardrail. The bridge sits on stone abutments and piers, parts of which have been faced with concrete.
This bridge features a number of designs that its builder the Morse Bridge Company did on some of their earlier bridges, and as such is similar to the Six Mile Creek Road Bridge in Michigan. While the top of the portal bracing is quite different (and unusual) on Six Mile Creek Road, the bottom knee brace portions of the portal bracing is the same design. Both bridges also share the similarity in that there is no sway bracing, and only heavy lateral bracing is present overhead between portal braces. They also both share unusual cast iron nut/washer details as well at the pins. The Johnson Slagle Road Bridge is an 1882 bridge
Bridges built by the Morse Bridge Company that survive today, of which there are very few, are noteworthy because some of their bridges, like the Johnson Slagle Road Bridge, displayed several unusual design details. All of their bridges, including the Sulpher Heights Hill Road Bridge which was also in Shelby County were distinguished by ornamental details that varied from bridge to bridge, much moreso than was found in bridges built by other companies during this period. Among the surviving examples that HistoricBridges.org has documented, there is amazing variety in the decorative details. This bridge has an interesting shield-shaped plaque, and the unusual knee bracing.
In 2007, Shelby County with little preamble or notice to the historic bridge community abruptly demolished and replaced this and the Sulpher Heights Hill Road Bridge and with one stroke annihilated a large percentage of surviving Morse Bridge Company Bridges. The loss of these bridges cannot be corrected through any amount of preservation elsewhere, since each Morse Bridge Company bridge was quite unique, and no more exist in the county. Neither of these bridges needed to be replaced, and could likely have been rehabilitated for less than the cost of their replacement. To lose one of these two bridges would have been devastating, but words fail to describe the loss of both of them, in the same year no less. It is hard to fathom how little appreciation one would have for a county's heritage to demolish these bridges.
This historic bridge has been demolished. This map is shown for reference purposes only.
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