(Photo provided) Explosions brought down the Putnam Street Bridge a quarter of a century ago.

After serving Marietta through two world wars, the Depression and countless floods, the Putnam Street Bridge was blown to bits 25 years ago tomorrow.

Has it been that long? Yes it has.

The crossing of the Muskingum River was a bridge built out of necessity following the great flood of 1913. It replaced a lighter weight bridge that was knocked off its piers by a large building floating down the river during the catastrophic flood.

Technically it replaced a floating bridge that was erected so that people would have a way to get from downtown to Harmar. The crossing was critical since the nearby rail bridge was also heavily damaged. The higher Washington Street Bridge would not be constructed for decades,

The bridge was somewhat unique because it featured a swing span on the eastern end. The bridge was built to line up with the upstream gates of lock 1 that was just downstream. At the end of its life, it was one of just four swing spans in Ohio, although the span had been welded shut in 1953. On top of the span was a little house for the bridge tender to work in. The “house” sat empty for more than 30 years before it was removed in 1986, likely after serving as a pigeon house for years.

The bridge was built to accommodate two lanes of traffic on a wooden deck. When constructed, it also had two street car tracks. A pair of six-foot wide wood sidewalks allowed foot traffic on both the upstream and downstream sides of the bridge. The tracks were removed in 1951 when the decking was converted to concrete, but the wood sidewalks remained. Generations of rowers would run across the wood planking of the bridge as part of their pre-practice warmup. The unique sound of running on wood made a team sound like a herd of horses as it crossed on its way back to the boat house.

As the bridge aged, so did the amount of maintenance that it required. The concrete caps on the piers needed to be repaired, steel members needed reinforced, and the weight limit got more and more restrictive. The bridge that once carried the weight of the Start Westward monument could no longer support a fire truck.

Flexible barriers to keep large traffic off the bridge were installed in 1993. When that failed to stop trucks a more rigid barrier was installed at each end. The barriers were hit often and normally meant a Marietta Times reporter would have to go down and see how bad the damage was.

“The bridge got hit,” became shorthand in the newsroom for “A person ignored the bright yellow barriers and hit the giant steel signs designed to keep them off the aging Putnam Street Bridge.”

The bridge was not exactly where the current bridge sits. If you are using the River Trail, you will notice a low stone pier just before you go into the tunnel under the bridge heading toward the armory. That was one of the piers for the bridge which aligned with neither Putnam Street on the east, nor Putnam Avenue on the west. Drivers were forced to make a slight turn when entering the bridge from either side.

The new bridge, which is the Putnam Bridge, not the Putnam Street Bridge, curves so that it aligns on both sides of the river to the streets that are named for different people named Putnam. The curve allowed most of the current bridge to be built before the 1914 version was shut down for good and removed 25 years ago tomorrow.

Art Smith is online manager of The Times, he can be reached at asmith@mariettatimes.com