Circa 1910
B&O builds a riveted Warren truss bridge at the Rowlesburg crossing
Around 1910, a riveted Warren truss bridge carried the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad across the Cheat River at Rowlesburg. HAER describes it as the third bridge at this site, following the Fink bridge of 1851 and the Bollman bridge of 1870. Its surviving documentation includes four photographs and a short written history, preserving a record of this early twentieth-century railroad structure.
Research status
This entry has been checked against its named source.
The timeline wording accurately reflects the source listed below. This status does not necessarily mean the event has been independently corroborated against additional records.
Sources and further reading
Where this entry comes from
Historic American Engineering Record, HAER WV-13, B&O Railroad, Rowlesburg Bridge, written historical and descriptive data (transmitted 1984) and Library of Congress catalog
Research notes
What the evidence establishes
The HAER written data sheet gives the date as circa 1910; the Library of Congress catalog lists 1910 as initial construction. This entry retains the written report’s approximate dating.
Contemporary newspaper coverage of the July 1888 flood reported an iron B&O bridge at Rowlesburg washed away. How that report fits HAER’s three-bridge chronology remains unresolved: the affected structure or span and any subsequent rebuilding have not been established.
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