Bell Run S Bridge

The Bell Run S Bridge is located along the National Road east of Cambridge in Guernsey County, Ohio.

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History

The Bell Run S Bridge is located east of Cambridge in Guernsey County, Ohio. Constructed in 1828, it formerly carried the National Road and U.S. Route 40 over Bell Run Creek. ¹

The crossing is one of several masonry S bridges built in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and it contains a stone arch span over the creek, set on a line perpendicular to the stream’s flow, while the roadway curves on either side of the arch. ² Built by Kinkeade & Beck ⁵ of cut stone laid in courses of one foot or more, the S Bridge originally had a brick floor. ¹ Its distinctive S-shaped form is both unusual and practical. The curves ease the approaches to the crossing, reduce the length of arch needed to span the stream, avoid steeper grades, and help protect the backfill from erosion.

Its history was also tied to Zane’s Trace, the earlier road through the region. In 1803, that trace crossed Bell Run Creek on a ford or a log span. ³

During World War I, the entire National Road from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois, was paved in brick to accommodate military traffic. ² The Bell Run Creek S Bridge was the one last sections to be bricked, and that work was completed in 1919.

The S bridge was bypassed with a new alignment of U.S. Route 40 in 1932. ⁴ In 1936, the Ohio Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution persuaded the Ohio Highway Department to route the road around the old structure rather than replace it with a new bridge. ¹

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Gallery

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Details

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Sources

1. Loveday, Amos J., Jr. “S” Bridge II. National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form, July 1972.
2. “The Fox Creek ‘S’ Bridge Park.” Interpretative Marker, 1997.
3. “Peters Creek S-Bridge.” The Historical Marker Database.
4. Transportation Information Mapping System. Ohio Department of Transportation.
5. “Historical.” Cambridge Jeffersonian, 29 Dec. 1904, p. 3.