Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 1 February 2005

The History of Warren County Ohio
Part IV Township Histories
Franklin Township by W. C. Reeder
(Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)

Page
546

When the first river bridge was built at Franklin we have been unable to learn, but, in 1844, an effort was made to replace the bridge then standing. This old bridge was subject to toll, and one-half curving down stream and the other up, did not re-assure those crossing it, so far as safety was concerned. In 1844, the county furnished half the amount required to build a bridge, the citizens making up the balance. The old bridge which looked so dangerous was so strongly built that it was a difficult matter to tear it down; the east end was chopped off, the west burnt off at the abutments, and, in 1848, a large truss bridge with a double driveway was built. This was to be self-supporting, but soon settled so much that a pier was placed under it and arches put in. It was never a good bridge, and, in 1872, the Commissioners determined that it must be replaced as the money required to repair it would, in a few years suffice to build a new one. Advertisements for proposals to build an iron bridge resulted in a contract with J. W. Shipman & Co., of Cincinnati, for a suspension bridge, 320 feet long, with twenty feet roadway. The towers are thirty-eight feet high, and each consists of four columns, of Phoenix column iron. The cables are of steel wire and each is composed of 343 strands, the whole cable having a diameter of seven inches. The masonry is constructed of Dayton stone, and is of a very substantial character. The abutments were built in the fall and winter of 1872. The old bridge was used as long as possible, and only torn away in the spring of 1873, when it became a hindrance to the workmen on the new one. The wire and iron work was done in the summer of 1873 under the superintendence of Roebling & Sons, of Trenton, N. J. The bridge is stayed by strong wire cables and stiffened by an iron truss. The whole cost was $43,900. Messrs. J. W. Shipman & Co. kindly donated four massive iron lions, which ornament the anchorage piers.