1907-37 Luten Designed Bridge over Maumee River at Waterville, OH

(Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; 3D Satellite)

This bridge is known as a Luten bridge because it was designed by Daniel B. Luten. Luten had  more than 30 patents concerning reinforced concrete arch bridges. [wikivisually] The earliest reinforced concrete bridges date back to the late 1880s and 1890s and were closed spandrel deck arches. Luten was the most famous and prolific of the engineers who promoted reinforced concrete bridges. But North Carolina's State Highway Department built their own bridge designs because they questioned the propriety of some of Luten's patents. [ncdot]

This closed spandrel bridge is filled with earth.  

Digitized by Google via Historic Bridges

This Ohio Interurban bridge is another bridge for which I'm saving the satellite image because it is literally falling down. It has become a safety issue for kayakers and canoers. ODOT claims that ODNR (Ohio Department of Natural Resources) won't allow them to restrict "river traffic" to channels under safe arches. (I wonder what the ODNR reason is.) [13abc] It costs $2.2m to tear it down and $15m to repair it. So guess what ODOT wants to do. Actually, spending just $2.2m is reasonable since Waterville could not raise $300,000 in the 1970s for repairs. So this bridge will probably be disappearing from satellite images in a few years.

3D Satellite

Crosses Indian meeting place known as Roche de boeuf. Part of this Indian "island" destroyed during bridge construction.

Ohio DOT has proposed demolition, but other entities are working towards preservation.

[Bridge Hunter]

A Street View of the Island

Feb 2024: 

Allen Bender posted, cropped

Waterville,  Ohio

Roche de Boeuf

1908

Spanning Maumee River

[The comments were both pro and con about the plan to remove it.]

Rob Coss shared

Digitized by Google via Historic Bridges

Both Bridge Hunter and Historic Bridges have this photo. Bridge Hunter credits Ohio Memory. Historic Bridges has quite a few more construction photos and a photo of the island before bridge construction altered it.

ArkansasHighways, p6

ArkansasHighways, p7

ArkansasHighways, p7

Later, Luten also designed open-spandrel arch bridges.

ArkansasHighways, p3

13 photos

Tim Tonjes: I heard it will be demolished soon for safety purposes.

Spain James: Just in case anyone wants to know, Ohio was first in the country in terms of interurban mileage, according to George Hilton. Indiana was number 2.