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Crossing into HistoryBY JULIE S. TERRYPHOTOS ASHLEY GALLAHER QUINN AND COMPLIMENTS MARY BETH NENNI

The Ironton-Russell Bridge Has Served the Community 94 years but Does It Have a Future?

A Grand Old Bridge

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For the past 94 years, when you turn west on Park Avenue toward downtown Ironton, Ohio, you can see a truss bridge

rising above the city, stretching across the Ohio River into downtown Russell, Kentucky. In earlier years, the steel beams were covered in a grayish silver paint, but lately they’ve been drenched in sky blue. Decorative spires previously adorned the topmost points of the structure, but they’re long gone, along with the wooden decking.

Known simply as the Ironton-Russell Bridge, the span opened to great fanfare on Thursday, April 20, 1922, with governors, business leaders and dignitaries from Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia in attendance, along with a reported crowd of 10,000. It was the first highway bridge over the Ohio River between Parkersburg, West Virginia, and Cincinnati, Ohio. It would be several years before bridges were built for other nearby cities.

The bridge was the result of the efforts by eight Ironton businessmen who raised $700,000 and built the bridge as a private project in 274 days. The Ironton-Russell Bridge Company controlled the bridge until the State Bridge Commission of Ohio took over in 1963. In 1982, control was transferred to the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), which closed the tollbooth in 1983.

Through the years, thousands of working men and women have crossed the bridge daily on their way to jobs, while thousands more have used the bridge for visiting family and friends, shopping and dining on the other side of the Ohio River. Until 1991, heavy commercial trucks were still allowed to use the bridge. Approximately 10,300 vehicles per day still traverse it.

If you ask people in Ironton about the Ironton-Russell Bridge, you’ll hear some entertaining, touching and surprising stories.

Bridge Myths and StoriesThere’s a rumor the bridge used to live out

West before it was purchased at a discount by the Ironton businessmen, dismantled, and then reassembled in Ironton: This has been debunked. There’s also an untrue belief that it is the exact design as the Silver Bridge, which collapsed in December of 1967 in Gallipolis, Ohio. Actually, the Silver Bridge was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge; whereas, the Ironton-Russell structure is a cantilever truss bridge.

People remember times when the bridge was shut down because of icy conditions and when a barge hit one of the bridge’s piers. They mention the pedestrian walkway being closed due to the peregrine falcons nesting in the bridge’s struts. Some remember the Ironton-Russell Bridge as “the gateway to Hill’s Department Store and lunch at Long John Silvers.”

Linda Pillar, 49, said, “We used to call it the ‘singing bridge’ because of the hum the floor grates made under your tires. That’s how we differentiated it from the Ashland Bridge when we were little.”

James Gallagher, 91, shared this memory: “When I was in high school, I worked as a messenger for Western Union. The Ironton office serviced Russell. I worked the evening shift, of course, after school. I would ride across the bridge on my bicycle to deliver messages to the drug store in Russell. The flutter of the bridge’s resident bats always accompanied those nighttime rides.”

Some spoke about how frightening it was when they were first learning to drive to navigate the steep ramp and sharp turn onto the bridge – and, most especially, if they were trying to control a manual shift vehicle. Motorcyclists talk about the wobbly, out-of-control feeling they get when their tires bump over the deck grates.

When the Ironton-Russell Bridge opened it was a toll bridge. The fare to cross changed over the years. It was 25 cents before the booth was removed in 1983.

> Continued next page

We used to call it the ‘singing bridge’ because of the hum the floor grates

made under your tires.

– Linda Pillar

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James Gallagher II, 58, contributed this tale: “One night there was a guy being chased by police across the bridge from the Kentucky side. His vehicle went right through the curve on the Ironton side, went airborne and went halfway through the second floor of a building next to the bridge. I always wondered how they got the car out of the side of the building.”

Kim Bustetter, 49, shared this bridge story: “I remember when I was in high school and the first time I felt my car do ‘a little jig’ when I was going too fast and the grating was wet. That experience definitely left a mark on me! We had a new coworker start in February this year, and my first piece of advice was when traveling the Ironton Bridge, slow down whenever it is wet!”

A Bridge Love StoryOn the other hand, some have fond

memories of the role the bridge played in their lives.

Joe Unger, 55, president of Unger’s Shoes, shared heartwarming stories from his parents’ courtship and early marriage. In the 1930s, as America was emerging from the Great Depression, many average families did not own a car. Joe Unger’s father, Gene, would walk across the Ironton-Russell Bridge to see his sweetheart Bonnie, who lived in Russell. They’d frequently return to Ironton for dinner, dancing, movies, parties and such. When their evening was done, Gene escorted his date home, and then he’d cross back to Ironton. Vehicles and pedestrians alike were charged a toll every time they used the bridge, so Gene ended up paying for four trips to accomplish one date with his girlfriend.

Joe tells another story about a time shortly after Gene and Bonnie’s marriage in 1938. All the wedding gifts were dropped off by well-wishers at Bonnie’s family home in Russell. Joe and a friend loaded up and carried the gifts across the bridge to the couple’s new Ironton apartment on North 4th Street. Apparently, the most memorable expedition involved transporting boxes of heavy, delicate dishware from point A to point B.

“When I was a boy, I remember whenever my dad and this other man saw each other they’d yell, ‘Hello, Dishes!’” Joe Unger said. “I asked why they called each other Dishes. Dad said it was their nickname for each other after carrying all those dishes from Russell to Ironton, an experience neither would ever forget.”

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End of an Era After serving the community for more

than nine decades, the Ironton-Russell Bridge is scheduled for demolition in early 2017. Described by ODOT as “structurally deficient” and “functionally obsolete,” the old steel becomes brittle at five degrees Fahrenheit or below. Its entry ramps, with their 90-degree turns, are a major impediment to modern traffic.

Construction on a replacement bridge, named the Oakley C. Collins Memorial Bridge, began in March 2012. It will cost of $81.4 million and is slated to open by Thanksgiving.

Can the Bridge Be Saved?As the time draws near for the opening

of the new span, citizens are divided as to whether the Ironton-Russell Bridge should be saved for historic, pedestrian and tourism purposes, or if it should be removed for safety, aesthetic and cost reasons.

A grassroots group, headed by Ironton resident Elle Dew, has formed to try to preserve the bridge. They view it as a historically significant structure that could have new life as a tourist attraction, event venue or pedestrian pathway. The group influenced the Ironton City Council and mayor on May 28 to sign a resolution for Governor John Kasich to reconsider the demolition of the bridge. Also in May, Preservation Ohio listed the Ironton-Russell Bridge as one of Ohio’s most endangered historic sites.

The “Save the Ironton-Russell Bridge” group, a 501(c)(3) organization, operates a Facebook page and is collecting signatures and gathering support for saving the bridge. The petition is available to sign at Unger’s Shoe Store. B