Description: This photograph shows a view of the Silver Bridge, which crossed over the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Kanauga, Ohio, via U.S. Route 35. Built in 1928 for $1.2 million, the 2,235-foot, two-way vehicular bridge was the first of its design in America and the second in the world. It was suspended on heat-treated eye-bar chains rather than woven-wire cable. It was the first bridge in the world to be painted with aluminum paint, which gave the bridge its distinctive silver color and thus its name. On December 16, 1967, the bridge collapsed during the afternoon rush hour, plunging vehicles and their occupants into the Ohio River. Forty-six people died. The immediate cause of the bridge failure was a defect in one of the eye-bars that caused it to break and its joint to fail, disrupting the entire structure's equilibrium. Construction of a replacement, the Silver Memorial Bridge, began in 1968. The Silver Memorial Bridge, which connects Galllipolis, Ohio, and Henderson, West Virginia, is located about a mile south of the old bridge's location. It opened to the public on December 15, 1969, the second anniversary of the disaster. This image of the Silver Bridge was among the photographs produced by the Federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1935 and 1943. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL06387
Subjects: Bridges--Ohio River; Kanauga (Ohio); Gallipolis (Ohio); United States. Work Progress Administration; Disasters--West Virginia--Point Pleasant--History--20th century--Pictorial works; United States. Work Progress Administration
Places: Kanauga (Ohio); Gallia County (Ohio)