The Interurban Bridge, also known as the Ohio Electric Railroad Bridge. is a historic

interurban railway The interurban (or radial railway in Canada) is a type of electric railway, with tram-like electric self-propelled railcars which run within and between cities or towns. The term "interurban" is usually used in North America, with other terms u ...

reinforced concrete multiple arch bridge built in 1908 to span the

Maumee River The Maumee River (pronounced ) (; ) is a river running in the Midwestern United States from northeastern Indiana into northwestern Ohio and Lake Erie. It is formed at the confluence of the St. Joseph River (Maumee River), St. Joseph and St. Mar ...

joining

Lucas Lucas or LUCAS may refer to: People * Lucas (surname) * Lucas (given name) Arts and entertainment * Luca Family Singers, or the Lucas, a 19th-century African-American singing group * Lucas, a 1960s Swedish pop group formed by Janne Lucas Perss ...

and

Wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

counties near

Waterville, Ohio Waterville is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, along the Maumee River. It is a suburb of Toledo. Its population at the 2020 census was 6,003. History Waterville was platted in 1830 by settler John Pray on the west bank of the upper ...

. The span was once the world's largest earth-filled reinforced concrete bridge. One of the bridge's supports rests on the Roche de Boeuf, a historic Indian council rock, which was partially destroyed by the bridge's construction. The bridge, which is no longer in use, is a popular subject for photographers and painters, who view it from Farnsworth Metropark.

Builder Lima-Toledo Traction

The bridge has been abandoned for many years. It was constructed by the Lima-Toledo Traction company, an early 1900s interurban trolley line that ran primarily adjacent to the Baltimore and Ohio steam railroad from Toledo to Lima and from there south to Springfield on a connecting interurban line, the Dayton, Springfield, and Urbana. Many Ohio interurban lines struggled financially from inception. In an attempt to create operational efficiency under one management, the L-T along with other Ohio interurbans was brought under lease control of the Ohio Electric corporation to form one large widespread Ohio interurban network. All equipment was relettered and operated as the

Ohio Electric Railway The Ohio Electric Railway was an interurban railroad formed in 1907 with the consolidation of 14 smaller interurban railways. It was Ohio's largest interurban, connecting Toledo, Lima, Dayton, Columbus, and Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquia ...

. Financially the consolidation didn't work, and when the OE went bankrupt in 1921, the L-T returned to its former owners and operated as the Lima-Toledo Railroad. It continued interurban service between Toledo and Lima using its essential long bridge over the wide Maumee River.

Final railway use by the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad

In 1929, two adjacent Ohio interurbans (the Cincinnati Hamilton and Dayton, and the Indiana, Columbus and Eastern) combined with the Lima-Toledo to form the 323 mile long

Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad The Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad (C&LE) was a short-lived electric interurban railway that operated in 1930–1939 Depression-era Ohio and ran between the major cities of Cincinnati, Dayton, Springfield, Columbus, and Toledo. It had a ...

to establish interurban service from Toledo to distant Cincinnati. A branch operated from Springfield to Ohio's capital Columbus. The corporate goal was to increase passenger business and particularly interurban freight business in this heavily industrialized part of Ohio. From 1929 to 1930, the C&LE borrowed heavily to rebuild track and purchase new passenger and freight equipment in order to provide high speed operation between its major cities of Toledo, Lima, Springfield, Dayton, and Cincinnati. Starting at 1930, the C&LE was successful and business increased particularly with freight shipments, but the collapsing national and local economy in the following years due to the Great Depression, numerous floods requiring very expensive track and facility reconstruction, competition from newly paved state highways carrying growing automobile and truck competition steadily reduced revenue and forced C&LE abandonment in 1937. This was the last year that the Interurban Bridge saw rail traffic.Keegan: ch 6 On June 19, 1972, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Builder Lima-Toledo Traction

Final railway use by the Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad

Reference and notes

Further reading