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MIXED TRUSS
1904 Kay 36N3230E1600009 American Steel
1904 Noble 52N3190E0370002 Pan American Br.
1909 Johnson 35E1930N3453001 Kansas City Br.
1909 Nowata 53E0135N4180003 Canton Br.
1910 Bryan 07N3715E2245003
1910 Rogers 66E0435N4110005 Central States Br.
1911 Johnston 35E1920N3420004 Central States Br.
1916 Ottawa 58N4590E0160005 Missouri Valley Br.
1919 Choctaw 12E2010N4040008 Kansas City Br.
1920 LeFlore 40E1296N4707000 Kansas City Br.
1921 Kingfisher 37N2830E0710008 Pioneer Const.
1922 Muskogee 51-No Number Vincennes Br.
1924 Kay 36E0145N3210007 Vincennes Br.
1924 Oklahoma 55E1035N2990004
1927 Pawnee 59E0350N3450007 Green Beekman
1930 Kay 36N3120E0020004
1931 Bryan 0702 0000 WX L.E. Myers
1935 Garvin 25E1520N3180000
1938 Bryan 0702 0001 X Kansas City Br.
1948 Leflore 4014 2530 X
Occasions arose, either during the initial planning for a new structure or in extending or altering and established one, when Oklahoma adopted truss spans of differing type to fill the need. At the time of the historical bridge inventory 86 examples of mixed truss type existed from before 1955. Of these a number exhibit the technical or cultural qualities that make them important within the history of the state (Figure 70).
During the 1920s bridge building began to feel the effects of state standards for design, and the first structures reflecting Oklahoma's participation in the federal aid system appeared on major highways. In extending State Highway 16, also designated as part of the Jefferson Highway, through Muskogee in 1922, the state paid the Vincennes Bridge Company $139,500 for a 1,100-foot bridge over the Arkansas River that consisted of four Parker through trusses and a camelback pony. Heavily built with rigid connections and a 22-foot concrete roadway, the bridge helped inaugurate the state's program for highway improvements. Almost at the same time in another case a new bridge resulted from an emergency near Ralston when in 1923 the county bridge washed out. Until the state acted, Ralston merchants operated a ferry across the Arkansas River to protect their trade with local farmers and their business with travelers through the area. Thus, this part of the state saw great significance in the construction of the Belford Bridge in 1927, a span composed of five Parkers, a Warren pony, and stringers which stretched 2,213 feet across the river on State Highway 18 (Figure 71). Projects of this size and importance polished the public image of the highway department at moments during the 1920s when it struggled with political and internal discord.
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Figure 70. Bridge 53E0135N4180003 exemplifies the mixed truss type bridge of Oklahoma. A Pratt pony truss stands on each end of a Parker through truss. Built in 1909 by Canton Bridge Company, it spans the Verdigris River north of Oologah Wildlife Area in Nowata County.
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Figure 71. Building the Belford Bridge in 1927. Bridge 59E0350N3450007 crosses the Arkansas River to join Osage and Pawnee Counties.
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In accelerating the bridge program during the 1930s, both a response to growing volumes of traffic and more federal spending spurred by the depression, Oklahoma added standard design structures in combinations that continued to be used into the 1940s. Beyond providing evidence of the technology and methods employed in these decades, some of these spans have a place in transportation history. This is true of the 1931 bridge made from four Parkers and a camelback pony that stands at an age-old crossing of the Red River bur also became embroiled in the "bridge war" between Oklahoma and Texas. Under more tranquil circumstances these states in 1938 accepted construction of eight K-trusses and four camelback ponies that made up the Red River bridge between Durant, Oklahoma, and Bonham, Texas. Both of these spans on the Red exhibit the sturdiness of big bridges on main roads, fashioned from heavy laced channel, braced angles, and I-beams with riveted connections.
Tracking down details about many of the earliest examples of mixed trusses is a difficult chore, because some of them grew in stages as a result of county efforts to reuse and relocate spans. Yet there are some notable spans within this stock of older bridges. One of the oldest examples in the state represents the work--the only documented case--of the Pan-American Bridge Company of Newcastle, Indiana, a national firm that played a marginal role in the Southwest. Pan-American certainly built the Pratt half-hip pony of 1904 that, combined with a Warren pony truss, crosses Red Rock Creek about ten miles north of Perry. Both spans have pinned connections (Figure 72). likewise in 1904, the American Bridge Company erected a 100-foot, pinned Pratt through truss on the Chicaskia River south of Blackwell. The date of the Warren pony that is joined with it has not been determined.
Two bridges built by counties before the First World War deserve special mention not only for their historical merit but for their attractiveness as well. For the sum of $9,820 in 1909 the Kansas City Bridge Company combined a pinned Parker through truss and a Pratt pony to cross the Washita River northeast of Mannsville. It created a most agreeable blend of bridge and place that remains to this day an unusually attractive site. Bridge and location produce the same pleasing effect in the case of the Sageeyah Bridge, once a part of SH 88 between Claremore and Collinsville, consisting of Parker and camelback through trusses spanning the Verdigris River. Relegated to light duties serving the residents of Sageeyah, this 1910 structure from Central States Bridge Company not only holds technical and historical value for the state but also shows how the old truss bridges seemed to intrude less upon the natural beauty of their locations (Figure 73).
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Figure 72. Bridge 52N3190E0370002 is a 1904 combination of a Pratt half-hip and Warren pony trusses that span a creek near the community of Red Rock.
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Figure 73. Bridge 66E0435N4110005 combines a Parker and a camelback through truss to cross the Verdigris River at Sageeyah.
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