NFS Form 10-900 (3-82) 0MB No. 1024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 & Unted States Department of the Interor Natonal Park Servce For NFS use only.,..,,. JIM **** V w Natonal Regster of Hstorc Places Inventory Nomnaton Form receved date entered See nstructons n How to Complete Natonal Regster Forms Type all entres complete applcable sectons 1. Name hstorc and/or common 2. Locaton MAYSVILLE-ABERDEEN BRIDGE Brdge/Smon Kenton Memoral Brdge V. j * A not for publcaton street & number.oho Rver between Maysvlle and Aberdeen c Aberdeen, Oho cty, town Maysvlle, Kentucky vcnty of Oho 039 state Kentucky code 021 3. Classfcaton Category dstrct buldng(s) X structure ste object Ownershp _JL publc prvate both Publc Acquston.HA. n process NA beng consdered 4. Owner of Property Status X occuped unoccuped work n progress Accessble yes: restrcted X yes: unrestrcted no Brown County, Oho county Mason County, Kentucky Present Use agrculture commercal educatonal entertanment government ndustral mltary 015 museum park prvate resdence relgous scentfc X transportaton other: name cty, town Frankfort vcnty of state Kentucky 5. Locaton of Legal Descrpton courthouse, regstry of deeds, etc. Commonwealth of Kentucky, Department of Hghways street & number State Offce Buldng cty, town Frankfort state Kentucky 6. Representaton n Exstng Surveys (MS-M-196) ttle KY Hstorc Resources Inventory has ths property been determned elgble? yes X no federal X state county local depostory for survey records Kentucky Hertage Councl cty, town Frankfort state Kentucky 40601
7. Descrpton Condton Check one X excellent deterorated X unaltered good? \ ru runs altered f. v* 1 far unexposed Check one X orgnal ste moved date Descrbe the present and orgnal (f known) physcal appearance The Smon Kenton Memoral Brdge, spannng the Oho Rver between Maysvlle, Kentucky, and Aberdeen, Oho, s located 55 mles down rver from Portsmouth, Oho, and 60 mles up rver from Newport, Kentucky. It s the only brdge spannng the Oho Rver between Portsmouth and Slver Grove, Kentucky, a dstance of 110 mles. Constructed n 1930-1931, the Maysvlle Brdge s a sngle deck, steel suspenson brdge wth Warren deck trusses. The brdge conssts of a man through span 1060 f tower to tower, and two anchor spans of 465*. There are a total of 12 approach spans, fve on the Kentucky shore and sx on the Oho. Includng the approaches, the total length of the brdge s 2,865', makng t the longest suspenson brdge n Kentucky and one of the longest on the entre Oho Rver waterway. Two dagonally braced, rveted steel towers, constructed on renforced concrete and ashlar lmestone pers act n compresson. The slghtly arched deck s supported by tenson hangers suspended from the man cables. A stffenng truss s located on the deck to evenly dstrbute movng loads along the length of the brdge. The 20 f wde roadway s constructed of renforced concrete. As ether end of the brdge stands a massve concrete anchorage. Desgned n a style remnscent of the Art Deco, these mposng anchorages are used to hold the cables n tenson. Bronze commemoratve plaques are located on both anchorages.
8. Sgnfcance Perod Areas of Sgnfcance Check and justfy below prehstorc archeology-prehstorc communty plannng landscape archtecture relgon 1400-1499 archeology-hstorc conservaton law scence.1500-1599 agrculture economcs lterature sculpture.1600-1699 archtecture _educaton mltary socal/.1700-1799 I fvv I fw art engneerng musc humantaran.1800-1899 commerce exploraton/settlement phlosophy theater 1900-.1900- communcatons ndustry poltcs/government _^transportaton nventon other (specfy) V A-.* 4* + * «'1 * T"f -f A.Vt!".- *«* * f** j-^ sv,.^,-. -f j-. j-. -? J-T- jc W - - - ^ Jl _ J.-S. -a, ~. M... QQn IQ^I...,_.... Kentucky Hghway Commsson, Bulder; Specfc r Moajgskx dates 1930-1931 Bulder/Archtect «j.. g.nd j «Masters, «. n Engneers.r Statement of Sgnfcance (n one paragraph) The Maysvlle-Aberdeen Brdge, bult n 1930-1931 by the Kentucky Hghway Commsson, s sgnfcant as an mportant example of a twenteth century steel suspenson brdge desgned and engneered by the frm of Modjesk and Masters. Durng the perod from 1925 to 1940, Ralph Modjesk and F. M. Masters ranked among the naton's foremost brdge consultant engneers. Ths Harrsburg, Pennsylvana based frm was actve durng a decade that wtnessed constructon of some of the naton's most famous brdges. Modjesk and Master's bold plan for a steel cable suspenson brdge between Maysvlle and Aberdeen represented a major departure from earler brdge desgn. Rather than construct a cantlever or Warren truss span, Modjesk and Masters utlzed tne cable suspenson type that had been successfully engneered by John Roeblng nearly a century earler. The Maysvlle brdge, n contrast to many of ts predecessors, utlzed the rveted tower and concrete anchorage n ts construetural desgn. The aesthetc handlng of the anchorage abutments was nspred by Lous Kahn, an assocate of Paul Cret and the younger brother of Albert Kahn. Because of ts strength and aesthetc smplcty the Maysvlle-Aberdeen brdge became a prototype for some of Modjesk and Masters most mportant later works, ncludng the Huey P. Long (1933-1936) and the San Francsco-Oakland Bay (1933-1937) Brdges. Even the Golden Gate Brdge (1933-1936) had assocatons wth Modjesk and Masters, as Joseph B. Strauss, ts chef engneer, was an early assstant to Ralph Modjesk. For ffty years the Maysvlle-Aberdeen Brdge has provded a strategc lnk between southern Oho and northeastern Kentucky. Begnnng wth ts foundng n 1784, Maysvlle, Kentucky, has been a focal pont for nterstate commerce and transportaton. Aberdeen, settled only slghtly later, was the termnus of Zane's Trace, an early Oho trade route that lnked the Oho Rver wth the Natonal Road at Zanesvlle. In 1798 ferry servce between Aberdeen and Maysvlle was begun by Nathan Ells, and t wasn't untl the Kentucky State Hghway Department began buldng the brdge n 1930 that the ferry was closed. Constructon of the span was made economcally feasble by passage of the Murphy Toll Brdge Act of 1928, whch was subsequently amended and approved by Congress n 1930. The brdge, completed n 1931 at a cost 1.57 mllon dollars, was fnanced through the sale of Brdge Revenue Bonds. The bonds were redeemed n 1945 through the collecton of tolls. In 1949 the Commonwealth of Kentucky renamed the brdge the Smon Kenton Memoral Brdge, n honor of one of Mason County's earlest and most famous settlers. By 1982 the brdge had an average daly traffc count of 13,173 vehcles, stll beng the only brdge crossng the Oho Rver between Cncnnat and Portsmouth. In 1928 Paul Cret had desgned the Art Deco pylons for the Lousvlle Muncpal Brdge, a cantlever span engneered by Modjesk and Masters. 2 It s not known whether Strauss collaborated n engneerng the Maysvlle Brdge.
9. Major Bblographcal References Collns, Lews. Hstorcal Sketches of Kentucky (Maysvlle, By the Author, 1847). Program of Celebraton Freeng of Maysvlle Toll Brdge. Project Number 2, KY Dept, of Hghways, Maysvlle, Kentucky, October 1, 1945. 10. Geographcal Data Acreage of nomnated property app.! 5 acres. Quadrangle name Maysvlle West UTM References LJ _ 1 Zone Cl, 1 E 1 G, 1 2 Eastng 6 01 0 2 01 I 4. 2.. l,11,11,,, < Northng 8 11 7 0 Oj B,. 1 D F I H 1 6 Zone LJ 1 Ld 2 Ea Quadrangle scale 1:24000 5,916,0,01 stng 1,, 1, I,, V 8 0 l North ng I 9,1,0 Verbal boundary descrpton and justfcaton Begnnng at the south termnus of the Maysvlle Aberdeen Brdge, whch s between Second and Thrd Streets, proceed N-NE approx. 2,000' to the Oho-Kentucky state lne. Then proceed n the same drecton approx. 900' to the Aberdeen termnus. The nomnaton ncludes the approach spans, anchorage abutments, pers, Lst all states and countes for propertes overlappng state or county boundares state and the three prmary OHIO code 039 county BROWN code rj!5 spans - state KENTUCKY code 021 county MASON code 161 11. Form Prepared By name/ttle Doug Loescher, Man Street Manager & Steve Gordon, Senor Hstoran organzaton Cty Maysvlle date February 1983 street & number Thrd & Brdge Streets telephone 606/564-9411 cty or town Maysvlle state Kentucky 41056 12. State Hstorc Preservaton Offcer Certfcaton The evaluated sgnfcance of ths property wthn the state s: natonal _?_ state local As the desgnated State Hstorc Preservaton Offcer for the Natonal Hstorc Preservaton Act of 1966 (Publc Law 89-665), I hereby nomnate ths property for ncluson n the Natonal Regster and certfy that t has been evaluated accordng to the crtera and procedures set forth by the Natonal Park Servce. State Hstorc Preservaton Offcer sgnature ttle date I hereby certfy that ths property s ncluded n the Natonal Regster Bntered In the Attests Chef of Regstraton date
NPS Form 10-900-a OMB No. 1024-0018 (3-82) Exp. 10-31-84 Unted States Department of the Interor Natonal Park Servce Natonal Regster of Hstorc Places Inventory Nomnaton Form MAYSVILLE-ABERDEEN BRIDGE Contnuaton sheet Brown Co., Oho; Mason Co.,KY^tem number 9 Page 2 The Hstory of Brown County, Oho. Chcago: W. H. Beers & Co., 1883. Wlkey, Henry and Else. Bographcal Dctonary of Amercan Archtects. Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1970. Informaton provded by Marty Hedgepeth, Lousvlle Landmarks Commsson., contanng communcaton from John Harbeson; Harbeson, Hough, Lvngston, and Larson, Archtects, Phladelpha. October 1976.