The Putnam Street Bridge, also known as the Marietta Bridge, is a historic United States river crossing that connects

Marietta, Ohio Marietta is a city in, and the county seat of, Washington County, Ohio, United States. It is located in southeastern Ohio at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio Rivers, northeast of Parkersburg, West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, Mar ...

, with its

Fort Harmar Fort Harmar was an early United States frontier military fort, built in pentagonal shape during 1785 at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Muskingum River, Muskingum rivers, on the west side of the mouth of the Muskingum River. It was buil ...

district. The original 1880 bridge was the first free crossing of the

Muskingum River The Muskingum River (Shawnee: ') is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately long, in southeastern Ohio in the United States. An important commercial route in the 19th century, it flows generally southward through the eastern hill country o ...

. The 1913 bridge was a contributing

structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

to the Harmar Historic District. The bridge crosses the Muskingum, just above its confluence with the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

History

The original bridge was constructed in 1880. It had two swing spans as the

lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

of a nearby dam was in the process of being moved from the west to east side. That bridge was wrecked by the 1884 flood. A second bridge was built on the same piers, also with two swing spans. An increase in traffic necessitated a new bridge in 1900, which was built on 4 new stone piers with a single swing section. That bridge was swept away in the Ohio flood of 1913.Historical Plaque at site. Putnam Street Bridge HAER OH-117-1

In 1913-4 a new bridge was built on the same piers and abutments, but was raised up to reduce the risk of further flood damage. The bridge was built by the Nelson-Merydith Company of Marietta. In 1951, the timber deck was replaced by concrete. In 1972 the timber sidewalks were replaced and repairs were made to the structure. In 1993 structural reinforcements were added. On 27 April 2000, this span was demolished using 400 linear shaped charges. Putnam Street Bridge oblq 2008

In 1999 a new bridge was constructed just down stream of the 1880 crossing. The new bridge is the first in Ohio to use the cast-in-place reinforced concrete box with the balanced

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

method of construction. The new bridge, while of a new design, incorporates architectural details of the older bridge. The new bridge cost

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

11.4 million.

Significance

The bridge connects the Harmar and Marietta Historic Districts and the 1913 bridge was a contributing structure of the former. The bridge was the primary crossing of the Muskingum until 1953, when the Washington Street Bridge opened.

References

External links

* * * * {{Commons, , Putnam Street Bridges 1913 and 1999 Muskingum River Buildings and structures in Marietta, Ohio Bridges completed in 1880 Bridges completed in 1914 Bridges completed in 2000 Bridges in Washington County, Ohio Historic American Engineering Record in Ohio Road bridges in Ohio Steel bridges in the United States Concrete bridges in the United States

History

Significance

See also

References

External links