Iron Monuments to Distant Posterity: Indiana’s Metal Bridges, 1870–1930 by James L. Cooper

Abstract

474 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE restraining motorists’ freedom, particularly in the United States. “Costeffectiveness ” determined the success or failure of regulatory initia­ tives. Blaine Brownell and David Goldfield provide an excellent anal­ ysis of the motor vehicle’s effect on southern cities in the United States. That automobiles hastened the decline of inner-city residential neigh­ borhoods and hardened racial segregation is not surprising. More intriguing is their suggestion that motor vehicles were more important in ending rural social and economic isolation in the South than in other regions in the United States (pp. 115—16). Barker’s volume reveals that, despite the large number of studies of the influence of motor vehicles in specific countries and even across national boundaries, many fascinating and important issues have only been introduced, not studied in depth. This work, appealing chiefly to specialists, reveals numerous topics requiring additional explora­ tion as motor vehicles enter their second century. Mark S. Foster Dr. Foster is professor of history at the University of Colorado at Denver. His books include From Streetcar to Superhighway: American City Planners and Urban Transportation, 1900-1940 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981) and Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in (he Modern American West (Austin: University of Texas Press, forthcoming). Iron Monuments to Distant Posterity: Indiana’s Metal Bridges, 1870—1930. By James L. Cooper. Greencastle, Ind.: DePauw University (Historic Bridge Books, Asbury Hall 46135), 1987. Pp. viii + 212; illustrations, notes. $7.50+ $1.25 handling (paper). In 1978, James L. Cooper agreed to undertake a survey of Indiana’s historic bridges. As the study progressed, the Indiana Department of Highways recognized the need for a comprehensive approach to both highway needs and preservation interests, and the Indiana Historic Bridge Committee was formed. The committee was charged with developing a system of evaluation and a preservation plan for historic bridges and with publishing the results of the survey for government planners and engineering consultants. One result, Iron Monuments to Distant Posterity, is not only an inventory and guide for planners but also contains a brief history of metal bridges and their builders, par­ ticularly in Indiana, making it useful for historians, travelers, and the general public. Cooper first describes the differences between railroad bridges (de­ signed and built by a centralized office for planned, controlled traffic) and road bridges (usually contracted locally, using designs of various bridge companies, for unpredictable, uncontrolled traffic). The need for metal bridges influenced the iron and steel industries, leading to standardization of rolled metal. Bridge making in turn was influenced by changes in transportation and by laws, particularly federal post TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 475 road legislation, requiring the establishment of state highway com­ missions and leading to the employment of state engineers and stan­ dard designs. Cooper continues with a more specific history of Indiana’s bridge companies. The second part of the book is devoted to the various types of metal bridges—arches, trusses, cantilevered and suspended spans, moving spans, girders, and viaducts—with a discussion of Indiana examples and their builders. Details of each type’s development, structure, and construction are given, as well as characteristics of individual bridge companies’ work. Part 3 contains the inventory itself. Introductory material includes sources ofadditional information and a plea for corrections, additions, or further information that readers may discover, as Cooper considers the list a “work in progress” (p. 111). He lists all known surviving pre1930 metal bridges, each identified by its number, name, the road or railroad it carries, what it crosses, the type of bridge, date, builder, and a rating of its historical significance either to the community or in terms of bridge technology. Details on how the ratings were determined, as well as Indiana’s preservation plan for historic bridges and a short history of the state’s efforts to document its historic bridges, make up the fourth part of the book, written by Richard A. Gantz, chairman of the Indiana His­ toric Bridge Committee. Iron Monuments is illustrated with nearly 300 modern and historic photographs, some sixty plans and other illustrations from bridge company records, and around thirty modern diagrams. Unfortu­ nately, the link between text and illustration is not always clear, a...