1829 Bridge Plan

Plan of one Arch (the highest) of the Bridges for the Ohio River at Louisville and Cincinnati and of the Front View of the Entrance" (No. 3)
By Thomas B. Smith, ca. 1829
Ink and wash on paper 25" x 43"
National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Office of the Chief of Engineers

Ohio River Bridge at Cincinnati

A Senate resolution passed on February 16, 1829, requested that the President of the United States send an officer of the Corps of Engineers to Kentucky to assist private companies “. . . to erect bridges over the Ohio River in the vicinity of the City of Louisville, Newport, and Covington.” The officer was also to select a site at Cincinnati, Ohio, paying close attention to the cost of the bridges and the effect they might have on river navigation. Capt. Thomas B. Smith submitted this bridge design which was not built. In 1867 a suspension bridge by John Roebling, who would later design the famous Brooklyn Bridge, was opened at the Cincinnati-Covington crossing. In 1870 a railroad bridge was erected at Louisville.