Bridge No: 002110

County Name : Brown

Cityffowuship: Eden Township

MINNESOTA IDSTORIC BRIDGE INVENTORY

Inventory Number: 5 w-f DIV- OOS

National Register EUglble: Yes

Critieria : C

Towuship : 112 Range : 33W Section : 28 $ ( - N £. -N £ Contert : Historic Iron and Steel Bridges in Minnesota

UTM Coordinates: 15:354477:4927187

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Structural Data

Main Span Type : 302

number main spans : 02

number appr spans : 04

structure length : 250.00

deck width: 18.00

Historical Data

Year built: 1918

USGS Quadrangle : Morgan NE Period of Significance: 1918-1947

Superstructure :

Substructure :

Floor/Decking :

Other Features :

Retains Integrity : Yes

2 steel, S-panel, rigid-connected, Warren pony-truss spans with 3 steel-stringer approach spans on north and 1 steel-stringer approach span on south

concrete abutments, concrete-trestle piers under approach spans, concrete dumbbell pier under truss spans

concrete deck with fascia channel sections carried by I-beam stringers (truss spans)

upper chord: 2 channel sections with cover plate and battens; lower chord: 2 angle sections with battens in end panels, 4 angle sections with battens in other panels; diagonals: 2 angle sections with battens; primary verticals: built-up channel section (2 angles with plate); secondary verticals: 2 angle sections with battens; floorbeams: I-bearn riveted to superstructure; expansion bearings: rocker type; railings: 2lines of angle sections with angle-section endposts; steelmaker's mark: Illinois-S-USA

Contractor/Builder : Waddell and Hohle, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Joliet Bridge and Iron Company, Joliet, illinois

Designer : Minnesota Highway Department

Statement of significance : Standing in a rural area about five miles west and 13 miles north of Sleepy Eye, Bridge No. 2110 spans the Minnesota River, linking Eden Township in Brown County on the south to Camp Township in Renville County on the north. The bridge carries an unpaved Brown County Road (CSAH Highway 8) on a north-south alignment. Resting on a concrete substructure, the crossing consists of two, five-panel, rigid-connected, Warren, pony-truss spans and four steel-stringer approach spans (three on the north and one on the south). Each truss is 81 feet in length. The truss webs on the two spans are identically detailed. Two channel sections with cover plate and battens form the top chord. In the end panels, the bottom chord consists of two angle sections with battens; in the other panels, the bottom chord features four angle sections with battens. The diagonal members are two angle sections with battens, as are the secondary verticals. The primary verticals are configured as a single built-up channel consisting of two angle sections with a plate. Rocker-type expansion bearings are found on the center-channel pier, supporting the south end of the north truss and the north end of the south truss. The crossing has a concrete deck supported by rolled !-beam stringers, which, in the case of the truss spans, are riveted to I-beam floor beams that are riveted to the superstructure. The deck accommodates a 17 -foot roadway. Plans for the bridge, dated March 1917, are on file with the Brown County Highway Department. These drawings indicate that the original design called for a single steel-stringer approach span on both the north and south. At an undetermined date, the north end of the bridge was rebuilt with the three steel-stringer approach spans now in place. This

Hess, Roise and Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota

MINNESOTA IDSTORIC BRIDGE INVENfORY

alteration in no way affected the design of the trusses, which retain their historical integrity.

On 4 May 1917, the commissioners of Brown and Renville counties met in joint session to collaborate on building a highway bridge over the Minnesota River to join their two counties. The new crossing was to be part of each county's "state road" system-- so-called because such roads were designed by the state highway department and their construction was partially subsidized by state funds. Having already secured plans for the bridge from the Minnesota Highway Department, the Brown and Renville county boards agreed to advertise for construction bids. On 8 June, the coounissioners opened proposals and awarded a contract, in the amount of $15,884, to Waddell and Hohle of Minneapolis, who were associated with the Joliet Bridge and Iron Company of Joliet, Illinois. In October 1917, the contractors reported that structural steel had been delivered to the bridge site, and they presented a bill for half the contract price. Construction continued into the spring of 1918, when Waddell and Hohle submitted their last invoice. The county commissioners, however, decided to withhold $218 from their final payment, apparently because there was some dissatisfaction with the work. In July 1918, Joliet Bridge and Iron Company directly submitted a bill for $435 "for extra work." Swviving records are silent about the disposition of this final claim.

In the state highway department's inventory of bridges, the new Minnesota River crossing was designated as Bridge No. 2110. Locally, however, it was known as the Eden Bridge, in honor of Eden Township, which hosted the crossing's south end. In its engineering, the Eden Bridge embodied a standard Warren pony-truss design developed by the Minnesota Highway Department and widely used from 1917 to about 1925. Compared to the department's earlier Warren pony trusses, this design had a sturdier truss web that featured built-up, channel-section construction in the primary vertical members. The web was rigid enough to forgo the outrigger-type sway bracing that had characterized the Warren pony trusses built under the state's supervision prior to 1917. After 1925, the state highway department revised its pony-truss detailing once again, and adopted a still-stronger web in which diagonals and primary verticals were configured as four angle sections. This later design, however, had relatively little impact, for its use was curtailed by the onset of the Great Depression, which virtually suspended bridge construction in the state. When bridge projects resumed in the mid-1930s with federal funding, the state highway department often found it more economical to use newly developed, deep-section I -beams at many crossings that previously would have called for a conventional Warren pony truss.

When the state highway department first prepared specifications for Warren pony trusses in 1912, it recommended the type for spans in the 40- to 80-foot range, and it adhered to this recommendation in revised specifications issued in 1918, 1921, and 1925. Representing the maximum recommended span length of the Warren pony-truss type, the two 81-foot trusses of the Eden Bridge are the state' longest surviving examples of the widely used 191 7-1925 design, and, as such, are the best surviving expressions of the design's engineering capabilities. The Eden Bridge is eligible for the National Register for its design, in the area of engineering, under Criterion C, within the historic context of "Historic Iron and Steel Bridges in Minnesota, 1873-1945." The survey sample upon which this context was based focussed on "non-standard" pony trusses, and did not include any pony-truss examples constructed after 1911. Consequently, the Registration Criteria outlined in the Multiple Property Documentation Form (MPDF) associated with this context did not specifically address such properties. In its general statement of significance, however, the MPDF established a general framework for evaluation:

Criterion C should be employed to winnow a group of similar resources to a meaningful list. Instead of looking simply to typicality as an indicator of significance, evaluation under this criterion should identifY additional important qualities, such as being the sole surviving example, the oldest example, the longest span .. . . By selecting the superlative examples from the major structural categories, a list of truly important bridges can be gleaned from a large number of similar resources.

As Minnesota's most notable example of a state, standard-plan Warren pony truss built before 1925, the Eden Bridge satisfies the MPDF's basic criterion for significance under Criterion C.

References : Minnesota Department of Transportation, Bridge Database; Bridge No. 2110 File, in Brown County Highway Department, New Ulrn, Minnesota; Bridge No. 2110 File, in Minnesota Department ofTransportation, Waters Edge Building, Roseville, Minnesota; "Eden Bridge," Index to Brown County Coounissioners Proceedings, in Brown County Historical Society, New Ulrn, Minnesota; following articles in Brown County Journal: "Notice to Bridge Contractors, • 12 May 1917, "Joint Session of the County Commissioners of Brown and Renville Counties," 16 June 1 917, "County Commissioners' Special Session," 3 November 1917, "County Commissioners," 18 May 1918, "County Commissioners'

Hess, Roise and Company, Minneapolis, Minnesokl

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, .. MINNESOTA mSTORIC BRIDGE INVENTORY

Regular Session, • 20 July 1918; Robert M. Frame, "Historic Bridge Project: A Report," prepared for State Historic Preservation Office of the Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota Department of Transportation, 1985, 79, 81; Minnesota Highway Commission, Standard Specifications for Steel and Concrete Highway Bridges, 1912, 6; Minnesota Highway Department, General Provisions and Bridge and Culvert Specifications 1918, Sec. 122; Minnesota Highway Department, Trunk Highway Standard Specifications, 1921, Sec. 11-1 ; Minnesota Highway Department, Trunk Highway Standard Specifications, 1925, Sec. 11-1; Fredric L, Quivik, "Iron and Steel Bridges in Minnesota," Multiple Property Documentation Form, 1988, Sec. F, S, in State Historic Preservation Office, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul; field inspection by Jeffrey A. Hess, 24 July 1995.

Form Prepared By : Jeffrey A. Hess

Hess, Roise and Company , Minneapolis, M innesota