Owensboro Bridge (a.k.a. the Glover Cary Bridge), Owensboro, KY

Every year since 1928, the American Institute of Steel Construction and the National Steel Bridge Alliance have both given out awards to steel bridge manufacturers, as a way to showcase the beauty of these magnificent structures.

When it was finished in 1940, the Owensboro Bridge across the Ohio River at Owensboro, Kentucky was entered into the contest as "most beautiful bridge in America." As breathtaking as it was, it came in second place, bested only by the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge, built one year earlier across the Susquehanna River in Harford County, Maryland.

Also known locally as the "Blue Bridge," the Owensboro crossing was well talked-about among the locals before the first steel girder was riveted. 

The two-lane Owensboro Bridge was built by the states of Kentucky and Indiana as a toll bridge (35 cents for automobiles; livestock, 5 cents per head) and is still standing. The toll was lifted in 1954, and here's a fun fact... Dr. Dan Griffith, a physician in Owensboro was the first motorist to pay a toll to cross the bridge when it opened in 1940. Ceremoniously, Dr. Griffith was also the last motorist to pay the fee, when tolls were removed from the bridge in 1954.

The Owensboro Bridge is an increasingly rare 17-panel, four-span, Warren continuous cantilevered riveted steel, through truss bridge, 4,622 feet long (the channel span itself is 751 feet long across the river current), with 33 Warren deck truss approaches on the Indiana side. It was built by the Hunter Steel Company, engineered by famed bridge builder Ralph Modjeski and his consulting company Modjeski and Masters. This bridge was one of his last projects... he passed away the year Owensboro was finished.

The bridge formerly carried U.S. Highway 231 across the river between its southern roots and the Midwest. When the new William Natcher Bridge was built upriver to carry busy Highway 231, the Owensboro Bridge was relegated to carry State Route 161 from Spencer County, IN across the Ohio to Daviess County, KY and the Owensboro city limits (at the state line on the north shore, the bridge becomes Daviess County Road 710). It's been repaved and painted several times to retain its famous blue color, a mandate of local residents.

One more fun fact... Although it was "dedicated to the memory of U.S. Congressman Glover Cary" in whose Kentucky district the bridge touches, the bridge itself is not named for him.  Its official name is indeed the Owensboro Bridge.