Pioneer concrete arch bridge remains in Dayton

Excerpts of an article for Ohio County Engineer by David Simmons, Ohio Historical Society

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Downtown Dayton's Washington Street Bridge, finished in early 1907, is among the state's handful of pioneer-era concrete arch bridges.

Ohio's era of concrete bridge construction began at the turn of the twentieth century, and Dayton deserves recognition, along with Cincinnati, for its importance in promoting the use of this new material among Buckeye engineers and bridgebuiders. The construction of Ohio's first concrete bridge in Cincinnati's Eden Park in 1895, coincided with Dayton officials' discussion of the need for upgrading their downtown bridges over the Great Miami River. Special concern was voiced about the iron Main Street Bridge, whose weakened twenty-five-year-old wooden deck was frequently breaking through, and the combination iron and covered bridge spans on Third Street that were both "unsightly and unsuitable for the heavy traffic that passed over" them.

It was not until the spring of 1902 that the city council authorized the sale of bonds to finance the construction of these two bridges. Public sentiment demanded "a modern bridge," and the city hired the Concrete-Steel Engineering Company of New York to design both structures. The Main Street Bridge was constructed first, while Third Street was under construction, a movement was initiated to have the iron through-truss bridge on Washington Street replaced, especially since the street railway company had complained of its "unsafe" condition. Again, Concrete-Steel engineers were retained to design the new bridge. This trio of structures built between 1902 and 1906 made up the states's earliest group of large-scale concrete bridges designed specially for an urban center by a single engineering firm.

Today the Washington Street Bridge is the only one of these early Dayton bridges to still stand since the Main and Third Street bridges were replaced in the 1950's. It remains one of Ohio's pioneer concrete bridges.

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