B & O Railroad Viaduct, Railway bridge in Bellaire, United States
The B&O Railroad Viaduct is a railway bridge in Bellaire, Ohio, crossing the Ohio River to connect the state with Benwood, West Virginia. The structure combines stone arched spans with steel sections and remains an active rail crossing to this day.
Construction started in 1868 after legal disputes with ferry operators who feared losing their business, and the bridge opened in 1871. The structure was reinforced between 1892 and 1905 to handle heavier trains as rail traffic grew.
Each of the stone arches contains exactly 37 stones, matching the number of US states at the time of construction. This detail is still visible today and shows how builders sometimes wove symbolic references into their work.
The bridge is an active rail line, so walking on or near the structure is not allowed for safety reasons. Good views are available from the riverbanks on both the Ohio and West Virginia sides, and the view from the water is especially clear.
Different parts of the bridge were made in separate factories, with some arches coming from the Mt. Clair Shop in Baltimore and others from the Keystone Bridge Company. This split production across distant locations was common for large rail projects of that era and required precise coordination between sites.
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