1990: (Bridge Hunter; B&T, Blog; John Weeks is "under construction"; 3D Satellite) Veterans Memorial Bridge
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| Opey Patrick Sr. posted, bottom and top cropped Fort Steuben Bridge.over the Ohio River Bob Marshall: February 21, 2012 |
Regular and slow speed 1:57 YouTube video of the "energetic felling"
HistoricBridges has a copy of the same video and calls it the official ODOT video. I quote from HistoricBridges: " 'When ODOT's not out plowing snow or repairing the roads we also enjoy blowing up old bridges.' -Quote from Ohio Department of Transportation describing the official video of the demolition."
The above anchorage was on the Ohio side. The eye bar chain is much more extensive on the WV side.
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| Boston Public Library Flickr Photo via BridgeHunter-1928, License: Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) |
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| Bobbie Flinders Wilson posted Grand opening of the Fort Steuben Bridge in Steubenville Ohio. 1928. Bill Patterson: My grandmother took this picture in 1925. I have the original print. Helen Kane: This scammer (Bonnie Flinders Wilson) has been snatching photos and reposting them in this group with the wrong info. I have tried to report scammer to admins. [I've learned that they steal photos and post them as their own to try to make their profile look real when they DM you for a fraud scheme.] John Manos: That bridge had scratches on it from one side to the other from tractor trailer mirrors. Marc Harris: I have posted this tidbit on previous posts regarding the opening of the Fort Steuben Brick. My Mom was 7 years old at the time and we had family who had a farm in the Half Moon area. One of the attractions that day was a “wing walker”. The plane crashed my family’s field. My Mom rode on the back of a tractor to the crash site. Unfortunately the wing walker did not survive. Donna Capito Paul: Marc Harris my dad was 9 years old and lived on Freedom Way (a couple houses from the current gas station -still there). He walked down to the bridge to see it and the plane. I’m pretty sure he said the plane flew under the bridge and then he saw it crash. |
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| Ohio Memories posted Fort Steuben Bridge in the 1950s The Fort Steuben Bridge spanned the Ohio River from Steubenville, Ohio to Weirton, West Virginia and carried U.S. Route 22 and then Ohio State Route 822 during its existence. The bridge was completed in 1928 and opened as a toll bridge. The Fort Steuben Bridge was weight-restricted in 2006 and closed in 2009 due to deterioration. The bridge was demolished in 2012. Photo courtesy of Adams Antiques of Steubenville Tony Piergallini: It was on the narrow side. In the 70’s I had a job driving and making food deliveries using a refrigerated box truck. If you met another large sized truck on the bridge, there was a good chance you were going to be missing a mirror. After your first one was shattered you remembered you pull the driver’s side mirror in till you crossed the river. David John Mosure: ms consultants, inc. designed the SR22(Steubenville) bypass which includes the largest earth tie-back retaining wall in Ohio. It has a ten foot tunnel behind the wall that provides for drainage. We had mining companies dig the tunnel. Drill and blast, drill and blast |
In terms of David's comment above, I found this cut, but this is in West Virginia.
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| Street View, Aug 2025 |
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| Paul M Lipke commented on Ohio Memories' post Fort Steuben Bridge demolition |
The tower certainly looks strong with all of those diagonals. HistoricBridges points out the arch in the lower cross member.
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| 2010 Photo by Jason Smith via BridgeHunter-1928 [One of Jason's many photos on BridgeHunter-1928 shows the pin connection of eye bars. But this photo shows that they use cables for the suspension. So I don't know where the eye bars are used.] |
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| West Virginia Life posted Old bridge from Weirton, West Virginia, to Steubenville, Ohio Photo by Paul McClure DC on flickr |
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| History of the Ohio Valley posted Traffic on the W.Va. side of the Fort Steuben Toll Bridge (1928-2009) - ca. late 1940s. Dale Gaynor: Only one bridge left from Weirton to Steubenville the WV ODOT shut the Market Street Bridge down 2 days ago.: Only one bridge left from Weirton to Steubenville the WV ODOT shut the Market Street Bridge down 2 days ago. [Mid Dec, 2023] Rj Williams: Dale Gaynor always add a few minutes and take the new glorious savior bridge in Wellsburg. |
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| Danield Steiman commented on the above post Fort Steuben Bridge |
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| EngineeringRecord via HistoricBridges, p3 |
This answers the eye bar question, they were part of the anchorage.
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| EngineeringRecord via HistoricBridges, p4 |
The above anchorage was on the Ohio side. The eye bar chain is much more extensive on the WV side.
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| EngineeringRecord via HistoricBridges, p6 |
The cable-stay bridge was built in 1990, and comments in BridgeHunter-1990 report that it is falling apart already.
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| Photo via LC-DIG-highsm- 31930 (ONLINE) [P&P] Credit line: West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Carol M. Highsmith's photographs are in the public domain. |
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| Street View |
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| WV The final construction cost was $90m. Engineering studies began in 1961 and the 1970s was spent processing red tape. Construction started in 1979. So it took over a decade to buld. The tower is 360' tall. "When the bridge was under construction, only three cable-stayed steel girder trusses existed outside of Europe or Japan—in Sitka, Alaska; Luling, Louisiana, and Quincy, Illinois." [The railroad bridge in the foreground is NS/PRR (Panhandle)] |
It has six 12-foot lanes [WV]. yet on a 2022 accessed satellite image I could find only one car and one truck using it. Sure enough, Robert C. Byrd helped get funding for this example of pork barrel extravaganzas.
I generously count eight vehicles using the bridge in this photo.
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| MichaelBakerIntl [This source says the tower is 431' above the river. The WV Department of Highways hired the company that built the bridge to do an inspection. What are the odds that they are going to be honest about problems in what they built? Using the contractor that built a bridge to inspect the bridge strikes me as being rather stupid on WVDOH's part.] |
So the old bridge was not torn down when the new bridge opened. It was simply allowed to deteriorate until it was no longer safe for traffic. What I don't understand is why a bridge that can no longer carry traffic can't still carry pedestrians and bikes. To rub salt into the wound, HistoricBridges reports that ODOT, after spending $2.3m to destroy the bridge, spent $250,000 to build a new truss for an overlook. Didn't it occur to anyone in the halls of the ODOT office that the old bridge would have made a fantastic overlook? Or, as HistoricBridges suggests, reuse part of the stiffening truss for the new overlook.
This is what $250,000 gets you. Now I can see why they didn't reuse part of the old truss. It would not have fit in that little space.
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| Satellite |
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| Street View |
I had noticed that "a hazard to navigation" was not used as an excuse for the demolition. In fact, I never did see a statement from the ODOT as to why it needed to be destroyed other than they like blowing up bridges. I can understand why it was closed to traffic because it costs money to maintain it. But I would think it would have to do a lot more rusting before it couldn't hold up itself and people. Since the bridge made it into the 21st Century, it occurred to me that I could use Global Earth to see how the navigation spans line up.
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| Google Earth, Nov 2011 |
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