Cairo Ohio River Bridge
Posted by: NoLemon
N 36° 59.642 W 089° 08.746
16S E 309050 N 4096362
The Ohio River Bridge is a continuous cantilevered through truss over the Ohio River. It carries US Highways 51, 60 and 62 between Cairo, Illinois and Wickliffe, Kentucky.
Waymark Code: WM23VK
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 08/30/2007
Views: 62
This is the "last" bridge across the Ohio river. One can see the end of the Ohio River, its confluence with the Mississippi, while crossing the bridge.
Construction for the Ohio River Bridge commenced in 1937. It was completed on November 11, 1938. It has a main span length of 800 feet. The total length, at just over a mile, is 5863.7 feet in length. The
deck is twenty feet wide. Vertical clearance is 19.6 feet. When opened this bridge was a toll road. It was freed of tolls ten years after opening on November 11, 1948. There is a marker commemorating the ending of the tolls located on the Illinois side of the bridge next to what appears to be the original maintenance building.
On the Illinois side, at the approach to the bridge stands a partially ivy-covered brick building that has long been boarded. On the side of the building is a collection of three bronze plaques that commemorate the commissioning and building of the bridge. The top plaque identifies the bridge as "The Ohio River Bridge - Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works Project No. Illinois 1153-R."