Louis and then to Indianola, Texas- most likely by ship as the town was situated on the Gulf of Mexico. It was from the eastern part of the US, where the iron bridge parts were transported by train to St. But there is no current to support claims of the span’s origin. Yet as the first bridge building companies were not established before 1890, according to Darnell Plus, one has to assume that the span originated from places further eastward, perhaps in Ohio or Maryland, were the Zoarville Station Bridge was built by the likes of Smith, Latrop and Company of Baltimore. Sources have indicated that the iron span was imported from as far away as St. Built in 1871, this Fink through truss span, similar to the Zoarville Station Bridge in Ohio in its appearance, replaced a wooden bridge built in the 1850s but was washed away by flooding six years earlier.

This bridge was located over the river in San Antonio, Texas at Houston Street. While it is unknown how popular Fink Trusses were during its heyday of construction between 18, one of the through variants was brought to the author’s attention via one of the pontists. Flemington Fink Bridge in New Jersey before its collapse.

Fink trusses were found in through truss designs as well, as was seen with the Hamden (New Jersey) Bridge– built in 1857 and was known to be the oldest metal bridge in the US at the time of its collapse by a car accident in 1978, and the Zoarville Station Bridge at Camp Tuscazoar in Ohio- built in 1868 and is still the remaining truss bridge of its standing in the US. The other Fink deck truss remaining is the Puenta Bolivar in Arequipa, Peru, built in 1882 by Gustav Eifel. This included the following Fink deck truss bridges: the Appomatox High Bridge in Virginia– built in 1869 and featured 21 Fink deck truss spans, the Verrugas Viaduct in Peru– named after the virus that inflicted the workers who constructed the highest bridge in Peru with three Fink deck truss spans in 1869, the Lynchburg Bridge in Virginia– built in 1870 and is the last of its kind in the US and one of two known bridges left in the world. Many trusses built with this design were in the name of the German bridge engineer, who was born in Lauterbach in Hesse and emigrated to New York after completing his engineering degree in Darmstadt. Invented and patented in 1854 by Albert Fink, the truss design features a combination of Warren and Bollmann trusses, and with the diagonal beams criss-crossing the panels, especially the deck trusses resembled a triangle with many subdivided beams. The Fink Truss: one of the most unusual of truss bridge types ever designed and built.

Houston Street Bridge in San Antonio Photo courtesy of Texas Transportation Museum Bridges of Amsterdam | Bruggen van Amsterdam.

The Bridges of Glauchau (Saxony), Germany.Iron Bridge at Aue Closed for Rehabilitation.More Photos The Bridgehunter´s Chronicles on YouTube

A Texas Pioneer by August Santleben