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ROSEBUD’S
CARNEGIE BRIDGETiny
Bowstring Span has Andrew’s Welded “Signature” By
Johnny Stucco |
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Andrew
Carnegie was perhaps the ultimate rags-to-riches story. After becoming one
of the richest men of his era, upon retirement he set out to give his money away
– with a vengeance. His gift of library
buildings across the English-speaking world is well known. (Two Thousand,
eight hundred buildings world-wide and nineteen hundred and forty-six in the U.S.
alone.)
Prior to 1872, Andrew
Carnegie had three passions: bridges,
railroad passenger cars and telegraphy. His iron mills were seen as a subsidiary
to his less-profitable Keystone Bridge Company, which he himself called his “pet”
interest. Carnegie’s passion for bridges
was that they provided monuments that would endure for generations and that they
required engineering and architectural design (when constructed on a large scale).
These were skills that Carnegie greatly admired.
While the first bridge
across the Mississippi (at St. Louis) was widely known as the Eads Bridge (after
its designer James B. Eads), it was, in fact, constructed by Carnegie’s Keystone
Bridge Company. The bridge was started in the summer of 1868 and completed in
the spring of 1874. |
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| "The
quailty goes in before the name's welded on." |
| The
bridge at its new home |
While
much has been written on the grand bridges, what are we to make of this tiny bowstring
bridge in Rosebud,
Texas? Formed of Carnegie steel, it clearly dates much later, but there is
no date-plate attached.
Was it an experiment that produced few examples
before being abandoned? Were the sisters to this sample turned into scrap for
WWII?
Searching
the Internet brought up few clues. The overwhelming content for a “Carnegie Bridge”
search reveals a beautiful span in Cleveland, over the Cuyahoga River, however,
the reference to the name Carnegie is an avenue by that name that connects to
the bridge. It is now known as the Hope Memorial Bridge, after Bob Hope’s
father, a local stonemason. Who knew? This modest little bridge sits on solid
ground in Rosebud’s
city park, providing no information – only mystery. |
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Rosebud
native Henry
Shupik (now of Houston) called
an old classmate who provided some information on how the bridge came to be where
it currently is, but nothing on its origin.
William
Tarver writes: “If I recall correctly from my youth, the bridge was originally
installed over Pond Creek in southern Falls County. Access erosion
caused a new bridge to be installed. The old bridge was purchased by the City
of Rosebud
and the city paid to transport it to the city park to provide a second means of
egress for the park. I think the bridge was a ‘kit’ bridge manufactured by one
of the Andrew
Carnegie’s foundries around 1900.”
For now, until more information
is discovered, or until similar bridges surface, Rosebud,
Texas has perhaps the only extant sample of a (small scale) “Carnegie Bridge”
in Texas. |
Romantic
grafitto
TE photos, 2005 |
| | or
Guilt
is Good
by John Troesser
Andrew
Carnegie
Photo Courtesy The Carnegie Center of Brazos Valley History
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