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A few days ago, I was going through my T-shirt drawer and came across a shirt I haven't seen for a while. This shirt is yellow with blue lettering that reads, "I was there Veterans Memorial Bridge, Governor Gaston Caperton, May 4, 1990."
This was a souvenir from the opening of the Veterans Bridge between Weirton and Steubenville, or, as we still call it here, "The New Bridge" now some 33 years later. This colloquial terminology though, will need to change because on Wednesday, the Wellsburg-Brilliant Bridge is set to open. With its opening, it will literally be "The New Bridge." As I understand it, there will be events planned all day: A bridge run, classic car cruise, Brooke High School Band, Buckeye Local High School Band, a grand opening ceremony with ribbon cutting and dignitaries, food trucks, musical groups and a parade to cap off the event. It will certainly be a day full of fun, but also a day long in the making.
Building a bridge is no easy task, especially one that spans a state border and crosses a major river. Before the bridges were here there were ferries that made it possible for horses and buggies to pass through. One of the first ferries to cross the river from Steubenville to the West Virginia side of the river was one at the bottom of Market Street in Steubenville at the location of the Market Street Wharf.
This first early ferry was an enterprise founded by Bezaleel Wells just after Steubenville was established in 1797. Permission to cross the river at this point was granted by the territorial Gov. Arthur St. Clair, but Winthrop Sargent, who was the secretary of the Northwest Territory at the time, signed off on the order. There was another ferry located in North Steubenville that connected that part of the city to the lower part of Holliday's Cove. Freedom Way in West Virginia was originally called Ferry Road because at the end of the road, there was a ferry. There are many stories associated with that ferry that have passed down through time.
The first actual span to cross the river in our area was the Steubenville Railroad Bridge. Starting in 1857 the bridge was completed around 1864. The bridge was built by Jacob Hays Linville and became the first long-span railroad bridge in America. In 1888 that bridge was replaced but used the same stone piers. The present structure was completed in 1922 on new concrete footings. There are still some ghosts of the original 1857 bridge left on the piers, especially on the Steubenville side of the river.
By the mid- to late-19th century, it was clear that a crossing was needed for increased commerce between both sides of the river. According to an article in the Steubenville Weekly Gazette on Feb. 19, 1875, folks from Brooke County met to discuss a possible river span at Steubenville. The big talk was naturally about who was going to pay and how much could each community contribute. According to the article, someone from Mr. Roebling's bridge company said that $150,000 would be ample.
As we know, no bridge was built in the 1870s. It wasn't until 1902 that plans were announced for a new crossing at the Market Street wharf. The Steubenville Bridge Co. announced that it would be building the span for pedestrian traffic and automobiles, but primarily for the trolley system that was planned to connect to lines in Wellsburg and eventual points north.
According to an article written in the Herald-Star on Sept. 15, 1903, machinery had arrived at the Steubenville Wharf and work would be beginning in several days. According to the newspaper at the time, the bridge company had just two years to build the structure. On Oct. 15, work began on the piers of the bridge on the Ohio side of the river. According to the Herald-Star, hundreds of people showed up to watch the dredging of the river sand and gravel and be part of the historic day. As work continued, a temporary injunction to stop the work was filed on the part of the ferry owner who operated on the wharf. That was quickly overcome, and construction began again.
Work continued on the bridge expeditiously. The pier on the West Virginia side of the river was completed in June 1904. Structural work on the iron parts of the bridge did not begin until that summer. The Ohio Steel Engineering Co. was responsible for the construction of the crossing, and they were working hard to get it built and on schedule.
Tragedy struck the site in November 1904 when three workers were killed during the construction. Thomas Rowe, Thomas Williams and Jacob Wise were working to wrap the cables of the bridge and had just started their shift on the bridge. For the workers to get out to the job site, they needed to ride in a buggy from shore to a work buggy along the span. The buggy would be pulled by an engineer at the other side of the bridge along a cable. Men in the buggy were then required to signal the engineer to stop the machine so they could move to the work buggy. Evidently the men never alerted the engineer that they were approaching the work buggy. Their buggy hit the work one and severed the cable holding the buggy to the machine that pulled it along. After the break, the buggy careened back down the cable, hitting the end of the line where the men were thrown from the car, falling more than 60 feet to the ground. Their death was instant. This event aside, construction continued with little interruption.
As work continued, the bridge celebrated a big first. The first woman to cross the Market Street bridge was Mrs. E. W. Cooper, wife of the superintendent responsible for the bridge's construction.
On March 3, 1905, according to an article in the Herald-Star, Mrs. Cooper was hoisted to the top of the pier on the Ohio side and walked nervously to the West Virginia side. Her return trip was in a boat across the river.
Finally, the work was nearing completion and plans were made to open the bridge on July 2, 1905. The first automobile crossed the Market Street Bridge on June 26. In the auto were Superintendent Cooper and his wife, Abner McCoy and a Miss Gross. The vehicle started from the Ohio side and upon reaching the West Virginia side, it simply turned around and came back.
In just about two years, the Market Street bridge was finally completed.
From that point on the bridge was relatively strong handling the traffic of a growing city. But in 1922 an accident occurred. There was a particularly heavy vehicle that crossed the span and due to the weight, snapped the top chord in one of the side spans in two places. Engineer David B. Steinman, known for his design of the Mackinac Bridge, was called in to assess the span. He found serious structural concerns dating back to the original design and recommended a full strengthening, repair and adjustments to the structure, much to the chagrin of the original engineer who regarded him with contempt. Later, Steinman was retained by the state of West Virginia when they eventually owned the structure and gave the bridge a variety of new components.
The Market Street bridge was the only span until the Fort Steuben Bridge opened in 1928. Increasing traffic made officials study the possibility of a new bridge and those began, surprisingly, in 1953. In 1980 the piers for the new bridge were completed in the river. It only took 10 more years to get the rest of the bridge finished. It takes a long time to build a bridge.
For those looking to learn more about our area bridges, I would encourage you to visit the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County's Digital Shoebox online. Many of the sources for my article came from this repository.
All in all, I hope these new bridges will last as long as the Market Street bridge has.
For the past 118 years, it has carried people from one side of the river to another. Next time you take a trip across the Ohio, imagine all the history and people the Market Street bridge has safely carried to the other side.
(Zuros is the Hancock County administrator)