Bridge: (Satellite)
Dam: (Satellite)Locks: (Satellite)
Lock House: (Satellite)
See "Y-Bridges over Muskingum and Licking Rivers in Zanesville, OH" for more information on the bridge.
Below is a low flow over the dam's main spillway. I looked for more photos of the dam because I've never seen a spillway design like this one before. It appears to be sloped for several feet and then it has a series of curved drops.
Donna caught a particularly high downstream river level. It is interesting that this heavy flow is in November instead of the Spring.
 |
| 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻: 𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗻𝘀𝘆𝗹𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗮 and Ohio posted Aerial view of the Famous Y Bridge • Zanesville, Ohio • 1942! |
 |
| Bridges Now and Then posted The covered Y-Bridge at Zanesville, Ohio, stood from 1832 to 1900. (Times-Recorder) |
 |
| Bridges Now and Then posted The three way Y-bridge at Zanesville, Ohio, c. 1900. |
 |
| Mark Howell commented on the above post Here's a closer view of the central pier in the Licking and Muskingum Rivers, you can see the toll collectors little shack at the upper right. When the covered bridge was dismantled in 1900, quite a few old coins were found atop the pier where they had dropped through the cracks of the tollkeeper's shed in the earlier years when a toll was still charged. It used to be a rather rough town, with a number of fights on the bridge, the police finally stopped patrolling the bridge and just hung a box of bandages near the center to let the combatants tend their own wounds. |
 |
| Rouse Morgan posted The old Y Bridge in Zanesville Ohio . |
 |
| Ohio Field Guide posted The Y Bridge in Zanesville sits at the confluence of the Licking and Muskingum Rivers, and it solves a genuinely unusual geographic problem in the most literal way possible: instead of choosing a bank, it goes to all three at once. Drivers approaching from downtown reach the middle of the bridge and have to pick a direction, north or south, which is exactly why locals delight in giving visitors the instruction to drive to the middle of the bridge and turn right, then watching their faces process it. The crossing dates back to 1814, when the first Y-shaped structure went up to replace a ferry at the mouth of the Licking, financed by Moses Dillon and partners and built of wooden trestles and stone with logs and planks bolted on. It fell into the river within four years. A second wooden bridge came in 1819 and got condemned after flood damage. The third, a wooden covered bridge finished in 1832, carried a genuinely grim story with it: during construction, a flood threatened the eastern span's supports, and bridge company owner Ebenezer Buckingham ordered the wedges holding those supports removed so floodwaters could carry them off without taking the whole bridge. When the wedges came out, the span collapsed and killed Buckingham and Jacob Boyd under falling timbers. That covered bridge lasted until 1900, when it was condemned as structurally unsound. The fourth bridge opened in 1902 in reinforced concrete, complete with decorative concrete balustrade railings that got wiped out entirely by the Great Flood of 1913 and replaced with plain pipe railings. Engineers spotted problems with it as early as the 1940s, warnings locals largely ignored for another thirty years, until it was declared unsafe in 1979 and demolished in 1983. The fifth and current bridge opened in 1984, built in steel and concrete but deliberately designed to mirror the 1902 version's appearance at the insistence of historic preservation authorities, over the objections of officials and residents who'd voted three separate times for a cheaper, faster steel girder design. Zanesville dedicated it with a full weekend of celebration, ribbon cutting, an auction of souvenirs from the old bridge, 1,500 balloons released by schoolchildren, Miss Ohio, aircraft flyovers, and fireworks. The one complaint that stuck was the tunnel-like effect of the new solid railings, which took away the view of the rivers converging that the old open railings had allowed. Amelia Earhart once called the design distinctive enough to make Zanesville the most recognizable city in the country from the air, and more than two centuries after the first version collapsed into the water, it's still the reason most people outside Ohio have ever heard of the place. |
 |
| Dave Roody commented on the above post It's a tridge -- there is one in Midland, MI. |
Below is a low flow over the dam's main spillway. I looked for more photos of the dam because I've never seen a spillway design like this one before. It appears to be sloped for several feet and then it has a series of curved drops.
 |
| TpOUZsf.jpg via Bridge Hunter |
 |
| radusta friedley, Jul 2019 |
 |
| Bob Kreager, Jun 2017 |
 |
| Donna Powell, Nov 2018 |
I've found quite a few other high-flow photos, but this is the only other low-flow photo I have seen.
"This working double lock still operates as it did when it was built 170 years ago....
 |
| Steve Gray, Oct 2018 |
"This working double lock still operates as it did when it was built 170 years ago....
Lock #10’s status as a double lock, with two chambers for raising and lowering boats, makes it unique in the region. The journey through the lock takes about half an hour, with approximately half a million gallons of water displaced by each chamber during the process.
In 1836, the state began building dams and locks on the river to improve its navigability. The dams made the depth of the river more uniform, but necessitated the use of locks to traverse them." [AtlasObscura, has several photos]
(new window) An overview of the dam, railroad bridges and Y-bridge.
(new window) A closeup of the dam
In 1836, the state began building dams and locks on the river to improve its navigability. The dams made the depth of the river more uniform, but necessitated the use of locks to traverse them." [AtlasObscura, has several photos]
The 1836 date in the above quote answers a question that has been on my mind: Was this built as a millrace that was converted to a navigation channel by putting locks at the end or was the canal dug for navigation? The 1836 date implies it was purpose built as a navigation channel. I'm reminded that this was during the canal craze. But the building between the river and the canal indicates that some people might have used the canal to power water wheels.
Abandoned by Sherman Cahal posted two photos with the comment:
 |
| 1919 Zanesville Quadrangle @ 1:62,500 |
Abandoned by Sherman Cahal posted two photos with the comment:
This is the abandoned lockhouse at Lock No. 10 along the Muskingum River in Ohio.The lock was completed in 1841 to allow steamboat traffic to bypass the rapids near the Y Bridge by way of a 0.8-mile canal. Built of sandstone with hand-operated wooden gates, it played an important role in regional commerce during the 19th and early 20th centuries, even as railroads gradually reduced river traffic. After damage from the March 1913 flood, parts of the surrounding canal infrastructure were rebuilt, and although commercial use eventually disappeared, the lock and canal continue to serve recreational boat traffic.
 |
| 1 |
 |
| 2 |
 |
| Street View, Apr 2025 |
(new window) An overview of the dam, railroad bridges and Y-bridge.
(new window) A closeup of the dam
 |
| Facebook Reel |
No comments:
Post a Comment