Bridge No: L07898

County Name : Yellow Medicine

Cityffownsbip: Normaoia Township

MINNESOTA IDSTORIC BRIDGE INVENTORY

Inventory Number : '{ N - N M fl - {) 0 7 National Register EUgible : Yes

Critieria : C

Towasbip: 114 Range: 41W Section: 19 tJ(_-,..Jf. -NW Context : Reinforced-Concrete Highway Bridges in Minnesota

UTM Coordinates: 15:274902:4950772

Structural Data

Main Span Type :

number main spans :

number appr spans :

structure length :

deck width:

Historical Data

Year built:

Contractor/Builder :

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1925

113

01

11.30

0.00

USGS Quadnngie : Normania Period of Signifieance : 1925-1947

Retains Integrity : Yes

Superstructure : single-span concrete box culvert

Substructure : concrete straight abutments with flared wingwalls

Floor/Decking : concrete deck

Other Features : open-balustrade concrete railing with paneled endposts

Designer: Yellow Medicine County Highway Department

Statement of significance :

Standing amid crop land in south-central Yellow Medicine County, Bridge No. L07898 is a 1 0-foot concrete box culvert that carries an unpaved township-owned road across County Ditch No. 53. 1be crossing has a 24-foot roadway between concrete railings of the open-balustrade type. With their urn-shaped balusters and paneled endposts, the railings display architectural detailing of the Classical Revival Style.

According to a computerized bridge database compiled by the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Bridge No. L07898 was constructed in 1925. The 10-foot concrete box culvert stands about one-quarter mile to the east of an identical highway crossing, Bridge No. L07897, built on the same road in the same year. Both structures display a highly ornate, open-balustrade, concrete railing in the Classical Revival Style. ln its engineering, Bridge No. L07898 embodies a standard box-culvert plan developed by the state highway department. But the bridge's railing appears to have been the invention of the Yellow Medicine County Highway Department, which prepared plans for both county-owned and township-owned bridges, subject to state approval. Although Bridge Nos. L07898 and L07897 are the only two remaining examples of this railing design, photographs on file with the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office indicate that several other Yellow Medicine County highway bridges of the 1920s were similarly detailed. ln Minnesota, such architectural treatment was usually reserved for prominent urban bridges. Ornamental railings were rare on remote rural crossings, and rarer still on small structures such as box culverts. Bridge No. L07898 is eligible for the National Register for its design under Criterion C, within the historic context of "Reinforced-Concrete Highway Bridges in Minnesota, 1900-1945." The Multiple Property Documentation Form associated with this context, in Registration Criterion 5, states that a concrete highway bridge may be eligible under

Hess, Roise and Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota

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MINNESOTA illSTORIC BRIDGE INVENTORY

Criterion C if it displays notable aesthetics. Bridge No. 107898 fulfills this criterion.

References : Minnesota Department of Transportation Bridge Database; Bridge No. 107898 File, in Minnesota Department of Transportation, Waters Edge Building, Roseville, Minnesota; Bridge No. L07898 File, in Yellow Medicine County Highway Department, Granite Fails; Yellow Medicine County Board of Commissioners, Proceedings, 1920-1930, in Yellow Medicine County Courthouse, Granite Falls; "Yellow Medicine County," in Minnesota Highway Department, Biennial Report, 1923-1924, 317 -318; Historic Bridge Inventory Files (Yellow Medicine County Bridge Nos. 8761, 107895, 107896, and 107897), in State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul; Robert M. Frame, "Reinforced-Concrete Highway Bridges in Minnesota, 1900-1945," National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Fonn, Sec. F, 8, in SHPO; field inspection by Shawn P. Rounds, 21 October 1995.

Form Prepared By : Jeffi:ey A. Hess

Hess, Raise and Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota