Rogovin: New bridge suspended over Showman Arch Bridge connects continents, generations

There is a story behind the news of the reopening of Cherry Valley Road with the installation of the new Showman Arch Bridge. It is about the immigration of a penniless young tailor from Belarus in 1895 whose son became a mechanical engineer and fought for Liberty in World War II by building B-29 bombers in Cleveland.

It is also about the brilliant young engineer from India who went to work for the tailor’s son, became a registered professional civil engineer in Ohio, and designed the Liberty Bridge that was erected over the Showman Arch to reopen Cherry Valley Road. His son is also a civil engineer, as well as a U.S. Navy lieutenant.

The obvious link between these engineers from across the world and generations is the Liberty bridge itself.  It has been described as “temporary” and also “permanent”, so which is it? In reality, it is a steel truss bridge that is designed to be both, and would be a very interesting case study for the engineering students at Ohio State University's Newark Branch as well as physics classes at Newark High School.

First and foremost, Liberty is a truss bridge the roots of which predate the ancient Romans. The idea of spanning a waterway with a stone arch evolved into a span of wood made of a triangle —  the first truss. Today, the modern truss bridge is a highly efficient structure of mostly empty space with the loads being carried along its triangular members. U.S. Bridge in Cambridge was the first company to connect those members with welds instead of rivets, and to dip them in a molten zinc bath of 800 degrees Fahrenheit to protect them against corrosion.

Today, its bridges are bolted, instead of welded, but the zinc bath remains the most effective means of ensuring the 75-year service life specified by AASHTO, the consortium of state and federal highway engineers that provide the standards guiding the design of all bridges in the United States.

The unique feature of the Liberty Bridge is its flexibility in being shorter or longer, permanent or temporary, all as required by its specific location. Its permanence is made possible by the size and weight of its members, each designed to carry the live load of crossing traffic for the required number of years. The Showman Arch Bridge, for example, is designed to carry the live load of 14,000 heavy vehicles per year for 75 years, regardless of its eventual location or length, and can be disassembled into shorter spans for other locations without affecting its load capacity or design life. As a steel bridge company, we like to compare the flexibility of steel with the inflexibility of concrete, which typically has a much shorter service life due to internal and concealed corrosion.

It must be remembered, however, that while your Liberty Bridge was designed by engineers from two continents, it was selected for Newark by its equally brilliant City Engineer, Brian Morehead, and Mayor Jeff Hall, who deserve all the credit for their outstanding service to you, the citizens. We are proud of our bridge, and you should be proud of them.

Richard D. Rogovin is chairman of U.S. Bridge in Cambridge, and a Westerville attorney

This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Rogovin: New bridge over Showman Arch Bridge spans generations