Gribblenation

  The Choate Bridge was built in 1764 and is the oldest documented two span masonry arch bridge located in the United States. Named after Colonel John Choate, the builder who supervised the bridge's construction, the bridge is located on South Main Street (MA Routes 1A and 133) in downtown Ipswich, Massachusetts and spans over the Ipswich River. Originally, the bridge measured 80 feet, 6 inches in length and 20 feet, 6 inches in width. In 1838, the bridge was widened to 35 feet, 6 inches on the east side in order to accommodate another lane of traffic, while retaining its original length. Remaining unchanged in the bridge's 1838 expansion was the west side and the parapet of the bridge, along with a stone that has an inscription to Colonel John Choate. Since 1641, there has been a bridge at this location over the Ipswich River in what is now downtown Ipswich, with the previous bridges being constructed with timber. In 1638 the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony orde...

  As the Oregon Coast Highway (US 101) was being completed across the State of Oregon during the 1930s, a number of bridges needed to be built to cross some of the state's finest rivers. In Florence, Oregon , the Siuslaw River Bridge was designed and constructed to help fill in the gaps between different coastal communities. Built in 1936, the Siuslaw River Bridge is a bascule bridge flanked by two reinforced concrete arches that spans across the Siuslaw River. The bridge and the river get their names from the Siuslaw tribal people who make their home along the river valleys of this part of the Oregon Coast. Today, the bridge provides a vital link connecting US 101 and the Central Oregon Coast to points north and south. The total length of the Siuslaw River Bridge is 1,568 feet, stretching across the river. But more specifically, the bridge is made up of a north approach with eight spans of reinforced concrete deck girder totaling 478 feet in length. There is a main span in t...

  The Russell Hill Bridge (also known as the Livermore Bridge) in Wilton, New Hampshire is almost certainly one of its kind. This bridge is the only known example of a timber, half through, pony lattice truss in New Hampshire and possibly in all of North America. Visible as you pass by on NH 101 west of Wilton, the wooden boxed pony truss bridge of a Town lattice design spans over Blood Brook on an old alignment of Russell Hill Road. It could be say that the wooden box design of this pony truss bridge was to weatherize the bridge. Plus, with the large number of covered bridges in New Hampshire, it was natural to use wood and timber in bridge construction. However, since the bridge is still open, it was still subject to the elements of nature, which may be the reason why there are not many examples left, and why the Russell Hill Bridge is a lone surviving example of this bridge design. Built in 1937, the 52 foot long Russell Hill Bridge is not the first bridge to be located at ...

Nicknamed the "Green Lady", the Yaquina Bay Bridge is one of the most recognizable bridges on the West Coast of the United States. It is certainly one of the best known bridges along US 101, falling somewhere on the list after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The image of the Yaquina Bay Bridge adorns everything from international travel magazines and business logos to the sleeve patches worn by the police force in Newport, Oregon . The bridge is admired by photographers and enjoyed by visitors to Newport, some of who take the time to walk the length of the bridge. The Yaquina Bay Bridge has a number of vantage points of which it can be seen, including at the adjacent Yaquina Bay Lighthouse property. The north staircase is an interesting spot, and a particularly picturesque viewpoint is at the marina in downtown Newport, with boats at the docks and the bridge pictured as a silhouette against a spectacular sunset. The Yaquina Bay Bridge is part of the US 101 routing o...

When I’m not on the clock helping to build or maintain the latest generation of bridges in the New York metro area, you can typically find me out and about documenting our nation’s many great bridge structures from coast to coast. While I’ve had the thrill of seeing all of this country’s greatest engineering achievements in-person over the last ten years of travel, it’s also true that some of my personal favorite discoveries are the ones well off the beaten path and far away from the established list of “Greatest Hits” everyone in road/bridge enthusiasm tends to want to talk about. Built in 1905 by the New Jersey Bridge Company of Manasquan, NJ, this charming little steel swing bridge is located along New Bridge Road (County Route 623) as it spans Alloway Creek in rural Salem County, NJ not far from the northern reaches of the Delaware Bay. (The name “Alloway” is derived from the name of a local Native American chief in colonial times, known as “Allowas”.) It was built as a center-be...