Cleves Railroad Bridge

The Cleves Railroad Bridge is a four-span Warren through truss structure carrying the Central Railroad of Indiana over the Great Miami River in Cleves, Ohio.

---

The Cleves Railroad Bridge is a four-span Warren through truss structure carrying the Central Railroad of Indiana over the Great Miami River in Cleves, Ohio.

The Cincinnati & Indiana Railroad (C&I) was incorporated in April 1861 as a subsidiary of the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Railroad (I&C) to build a rail line from Cincinnati to the Indiana state line. ¹ The C&I acquired the Whitewater & Cincinnati Canal right-of-way for its railroad, repurposed the tunnel between North Bend and Cleves, and constructed a new bridge over the Great Miami River using the existing abutments and piers of the canal’s aqueduct, which dated to the early 1840s.

In June 1889, the I&C merged into the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway (Big Four), becoming its Chicago Division. ¹ The Big Four was acquired by the New York Central Railroad in 1906.

The spring 1913 flood destroyed most bridges over the Great Miami River south of Dayton, including the Cleves railroad bridge. ^{1 2} A 900-foot replacement, designed by George P. Smith, chief engineer of the Big Four, ² was erected with steel from the Pennsylvania Steel Company of Steelton, Pennsylvania, ³ and was completed in 1914 at the cost of $300,000. ²

The Big Four operated independently until 1930. ¹ In 1969, the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form Penn Central. In 1979, the Indiana & Ohio Railway (I&O) took over freight operations from Brookville to Valley Junction, now part of its CIND Subdivision.

---

Details

---

Sources

1. Jakucyk, Jeffrey. “New York Central/Big Four, CIND Subdivision – Indiana & Ohio, CIND Subdivision.” Cincinnati Traction History.
2. “Bridge; Structural; Ironwork.” Industrial World, 25 Aug. 1913, p. 1028.
3. Bridge nameplate.