Some Historic Bridges of the United States

The Bicentennial Celebration offers a fine opportunity to examine the history and achievements of the United States in bridge building. Some criteria can be set up for labeling a bridge historic: (1) Because it is connected with an event of political or national significance; (2) because it marks an advance in engineering science or technology; (3) because it is representative, even symbolic, of its era; and (4) because it is an extraordinarily beautiful work of art. In this paper some examples are discussed and some bridges can be placed in more than one of these categories. The most important conclusion is that we realize the indispensable role bridges have played and will continue to play in our culture and in the development of our environment.