The Thornapple River Drive Bridge is a road bridge in

Cascade Township, Michigan Cascade Charter Township is a charter township of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 17,134 at the 2010 census. The township is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is located just east of the city of Grand ...

, carrying Thornapple River Drive over the

Thornapple River The Thornapple River (Ottawa: ''Sowanquesake'', "Forked River") (GNIS ID #) is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 19, 2011 tributary of Michigan's longest river, the ...

. It was listed on he

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 ...

in 1990.

History

A bridge at this location was first constructed in 1880. This bridge was a covered wooden

town lattice A lattice bridge is a form of truss bridge that uses many small, closely spaced diagonal elements forming a lattice. The lattice Truss Bridge was patented in 1820 by architect Ithiel Town. Originally a design to allow a substantial bridge to be ma ...

structure built by Will Holmes, known as the "Withey Bridge". By the 1920s, this bridge was due to be replaced. In 1927, a new bridge was built, using a standardized design developed by the

Michigan State Highway Department The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) is a constitutional government principal department of the US state of Michigan. The primary purpose of MDOT is to maintain the Michigan State Trunkline Highway System which includes all Interstate ...

ten years earlier. The contractor for the bridge was Price Brothers of Lansing. It continues to support vehicle traffic.

Description

The Thornapple River Drive bridge is a concrete

camelback bridge A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or s ...

, consisting of two spans, each long. The bridge is wide and rests on concrete piers and abutments. The bridge supported with concrete reinforced steel girders and has distinctive camelback arches extending above the roadway. Each arch contains five openings occurring above a line of recessed panels.

References

{{reflist National Register of Historic Places in Kent County, Michigan Buildings and structures completed in 1927