The Singing Bridge (also known as the St. Clair Street bridge) is a two-lane vehicle and pedestrian
bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...
in
Frankfort, Kentucky
Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the prin ...
that is so named because of the humming sound it makes when driven over. , the bridge carries over 5,000 vehicles per day across the
Kentucky River
The Kentucky River is a tributary of the Ohio River, long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed June 13, 2011 in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Kentuc ...
along St. Clair Street to Bridge Street, joining Downtown Frankfort with South Frankfort. It is a contributing structure to the
Frankfort Commercial Historic District on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
The bridge gets its name from the
humming noise it makes as vehicles travel across its open-grate steel
deck, which replaced a solid flooring in 1937.
History
The over-400 foot long bridge is a
Pennsylvania truss bridge built in 1893 by
King Bridge Company
The King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company was a late-19th-century bridge building company located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded by Zenas King (1818–1892) in 1858 and subsequently managed by his sons, James A. King and Harry W. King an ...
, and was rehabilitated in 1956 and in 2010. The bridge originally carried
U.S. Route 60 (US 60) until that highway was rerouted over the nearby
War Mothers Memorial Bridge.
In 2019, the 125 year old bridge's load rating was reduced from 9 tons (1988) to 3 tons,
then it was closed to vehicle traffic in late 2020 when an accident caused damage to a truss and rail. Repairs were started in March 2021 to repair the damage and to inspect for further damage caused when an unmoored floating marina's roof hit the bottom of the bridge on March 3, 2021 during high river levels.
Gallery
File:Singing Bridge Frankfort KY 2.jpg, View from on the bridge
File:Singing Bridge Frankfort KY 3.jpg, View from Bridge Street
File:Singing Bridge Frankfort KY 4.jpg, View from St. Clair Street
See also
*
Odd Fellows Temple: also a contributing building to the historic district
*
References
External links
Photos at King Bridge Manufacturing CompanyPhotos and technical detail at BridgeHunter.comTechnical detail at HistoricBridges.org
{{NRHP
Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
U.S. Route 60
Bridges of the United States Numbered Highway System
Bridges over the Kentucky River
Pennsylvania truss bridges in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Frankfort, Kentucky
Transportation in Franklin County, Kentucky
1893 establishments in Kentucky
Bridges completed in 1893
Historic district contributing properties in Kentucky