Historic Bridge Books

Iron Monuments to Distant Posterity

Indiana’s Metal Bridges, 1870-1930

Published in 1987, Iron Monuments to Distant Posterity: Indiana’s Metal Bridges, 1870-1930 tells the story of metal-bridge building in Indiana, including sketches of the major Hoosier designers and manufacturers. Written for the non-engineer, several chapters explain how a variety of metal arches, beams, and trusses function. The inventory descriptively lists l,700 metal bridges, over two-thirds of which have now been replaced.

Physical characteristics: 220 pages printed on heavy paper, saddle-stitched and paper-bound, nine chapters of text plus county-by-county inventory, nearly 400 photographs and drawings.

"…I just wanted to thank you for producing one of the finest and most informative ‘bridge books’ ever. You can be proud to have really done something for posterity—all the engineers, historians and laymen of today—and those to come."
    --Richard S. Allen, author of Covered Bridges of the Middle West and others on timber trusses

"Superb review of all metal types..., their structural rationale, the firms that built them, and an inventory of the most important surviving examples."
    --Society for Industrial Archaeology Newsletter

"The book is a feast for bridge enthusiasts, a guide for preservationists, and a fine example for other states interested in documenting and preserving their transportation heritage."
    --Nan Lawyer, review in Technology and Culture; author of “Closing the Gap: The Coast Line and Its Bridges in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties”

Click here to view the table of contents from Iron Monuments to Distant Posterity: Indiana's Metal Bridges, 1870-1930.

Artistry and Ingenuity in Artificial Stone

Indiana’s Concrete Bridges, 1900-1942

Artistry and Ingenuity in Artificial Stone (1997) analyzes Hoosier concrete bridges--from their grand to utilitarian purposes, inventive to fashionfollowing plans, architect-led to engineer-dominated design, expression of civic reform to product of interest-group lobbying, and from planned structural statements to anonymously attributed lore.

Early in the century, when private design of concrete bridges flourished, Indiana provided some of the nation’s most inventive and sought-after bridge plans. Indianapolis-based Daniel B. Luten held more patents on-concrete design and may well have planned more bridges built across the nation than any other single consulting engineer. Indiana’s proud heritage emerges in the 435 visual images of Hoosierdesigned spans published in the volume. The birth and growth of the state’s highway system is also told more fully here than anywhere else, although the focus remains more on bridges than on roads. Cooper discusses the benefits and drawbacks of private compared with government-generated bridge design and considers the impact of the automobile and truck upon the nature and appearance of spans from the Twenties onward.

The text of Artistry and Ingenuity was not written for the engineer only. Indeed, Cooper tries to demystify some of the key principles of natural science and to unpack some of the engineer’s technical language for the bridge-lover who is not technically trained. A series of boxed essays explain how concrete bridges work and how particular designs operate.

Artistry and Ingenuity can be used as a field guide to notable surviving concrete highway, railway, and park bridges in Indiana. The inventory surveys nearly 1,000 of the oldest and most significant spans from virtually all of the state’s counties, indicates the designer and builder (where known), notes the unusual design characteristics, reports physical changes, and assesses the cultural significance of each structure. The inventory also offers locational information helpful for field-trips to the bridges.

Physical characteristics: 275 pages printed on heavy paper, saddle-stitched and paper-bound, eleven chapters of text plus county-by-county inventory, internal indexing system for reference use.

Click here to view the table of contents from Artistry and Ingenuity in Artificial Stone: Indiana’s Concrete Bridges, 1900-1942.

Repairing and Restoring Historic Bridges

 Keeping Faith with Their Makers

Repairing and Restoring Historic Bridges: Keeping Faith with Their Makers (1998) presents twelve essays by different authors. Cooper opens the set with an overview essay on the “Endangered Art” of bridge restoration, followed by three essays on “The Craft of Restoration in Iron.” At the center of the collection are three case studies in restoration–two in metal; one in concrete. The concluding section offers reflections by two well-known national experts (Abba Lichtenstein and Eric DeLony) on bridge rehabilitation and documentation. Three Historic Engineering Record studies with special relevance to Indiana bridge design and fabrication conclude the volume.

Physical characteristics: 128 spiral-bound pages of text, drawings, and photographs.

Click here to view the table of contents from Repairing and Restoring Historic Bridges: Keeping Faith with Their Makers.

Restoring Historic Metal-Truss Bridges

A Handbook for Keeping Faith with Their Makers

With the help of a number of engineers and expert metal workers interested in historic bridge repair and restoration, Cooper gathered, edited, and introduced some twenty-eight selections into Restoring Historic Metal-Truss Bridges: A Handbook for Keeping Faith with Their Makers (2001). Cooper again opens with an overview essay. This is followed with sections on the manufacture, characteristics, and strength of wrought iron and steel used in historic bridges. The third section addresses the making and testing of members special to many historic American iron trusses members–eyebars and the fourth considers the binder of different metal shapes into truss members–rivets. The last two sections take up the use of heat and of welding for repair.

Physical characteristics: 128 spiral-bound pages of text, drawings, and photographs.

Click here to view the table of contents from Restoring Historic Metal-Truss Bridges: A Handbook for Keeping Faith with Their Makers.

To order any of these publications, click here for a printable order form.