Bridge No: 4220022101000

Asset ID: 117

County: Spartanburg

Bridge Name:

Facility Carried: US 221 (North Church Street)

Feature Intersected: Norkfolk Southern Railroad

Year Built: Circa 1915

Year Reconstructed: 1935

Main Structure Type: Slab

Design:

Main Material: Reinforced Concrete

Railing Type: Concrete balustrades (1935)

Number of Main Spans: 3

Number of Approach Spans:

Approach Type:

Structure Length: 100 feet

Structure Width: 81 feet

Setting: The bridge carries a 4-lane street/state highway and sidewalks over two active tracks of the Southern Railway's main line in downtown Spartanburg.The urban setting is dominated by modern commercial development.The Southern's Spartanburg depot, now rebuilt to house the local railroad museum, is west of the bridge.The railroad is Norfolk Southern's main north-south freight line that is also used by Amtrak.The bridge is four blocks north of the National Register-listed Spartanburg Historic District (1983, boundary expansion 2000).

The 3 span, 100'-long reinforced concrete bridge was built in two sections.The first section is the slab center portion that is supported on concrete piers and abutments.Maximum span length is 35'.It was widened to both sides in 1935 with T beams supported on column bent extensions to the original piers.Crash walls are located between the added columns and the original pier.Locomotive blast has darkened the underside of the bridge.Standard design concrete balustrades and modern light standards and luminaires finish the 1935 widening.

The slab and T beam bridge, built in two sections dating to ca. 1915 and 1935, is historically associated with the Southern Railway’s main line.The 1912 Sanborn Map identifies a steel bridge crossing the three-track railroad cut immediately east of the 1904 Spartanburg Depot.By 1923, that bridge, assumed to have been a truss, had been replaced by a concrete one that is the center portion of the present bridge.It crossed four tracks. The ca. 1915 slab portion of the bridge ranks among the oldest reinforced concrete bridges remaining in the state.

The bridge is historically significant in association with the Southern Railway’s main line between Washington DC and Atlanta (Criteria A and C).It contributed to making the railroad a significant factor in the growth and economic development of the state, particularly its textile industry in the Greenville-Spartanburg corridor. The Southern Railway (SR) was organized in 1894 and, over the next 12 years under the leadership of Samuel Spencer, it grew into the dominant regional railroad.Before his untimely death in 1906, Spencer had merged sixty-six different railroad properties into a harmonious system.An effect of the Civil War on railroads throughout the Confederacy was that weak and unnecessary lines were pruned and small companies consolidated into large ones, including the Richmond & Danville Railroad that expanded throughout Virginia and into Atlanta.Two railroads out of Knoxville, the East Tennessee & Virginia and the East Tennessee & Georgia, were consolidated to form a line between Bristol, Tennessee and Dalton, Georgia.Following the Panic of 1893 and using J.P. Morgan’s money, Spencer created the Southern Railway by acquiring those lines that went on to form the nucleus of the SR system.The purchase of the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas Pacific extended operations to New Orleans and Cincinnati and connection with the east coast port of Norfolk, Virginia that the company developed.From the outset, the SR outstripped its rivals in mileage, volume of traffic and investment in improvements. Between 1894 and 1900 the volume of freight carried doubled.Under Spencer’s leadership, track mileage increased from 4,400 miles to 7,500 miles, tonnage hauled from 17 million to 55 million, and passengers carried from 3.5 million to 11.5 million, including luxury train service to tourist destinations like Pinehurst, North Carolina, Aiken, South Carolina and Florida via Jacksonville.

The Southern Railway played a pivotal role in the economic development of the Piedmont region of the state, especially along its main line. In 1896, the company established a land and development department to promote commerce along its routes.The railroad produced a host of promotional booklets and advertising material extolling the advantages of the South for industrial development. The region’s proximity to raw materials, value of shipping finished product instead of bulk commodities, mild climate, availability of cheap labor, and plentiful water power were pitched to capture textile manufacturers. By 1900, forty-eight mills were located alongSR lines, and by 1951, 91% of the cotton spindles in the United States were located in the South.The Southern’s marketing campaigns were not limited to the textile industry, as they wooed all types of industries, including lumbering, furniture manufacturing, limestone quarrying, and kaolin along with diversified agricultural products like apples and peaches. The value of good farm-to-market roads was recognized, and the company was an enthusiastic supporter of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries Good Roads Movement, even providing a “Good Roads Train” to travel throughout the region demonstrating the best scientific practices for constructing byway and highways to cities and counties.

The SR’s main line between Washington, DC and Atlanta, which crosses the northwest corner of South Carolina through the important Piedmont cities of Spartanburg and Greenville, chronicles and reflects the economic rise of the region and the importance of an integrated and efficient transportation system to that development.Just after the turn of the twentieth century, the main line to Atlanta was overburdened.In 1903, Southern crews began laying a second track along with work to the roadbed to improve grades and eliminate tight curves.The then-new block signal system was installed to increase safety and efficient use of the high-speed line. The company also built or expanded yards and shops, including the sprawling Inman Yard in Atlanta, new terminals in cities like Birmingham and New Orleans, and new depots in Spartanburg (1904) and Greenville (1906 demolished 1988).A renewed double tracking campaign was begun in 1913 when Fairfax Harrison became president of the railroad.Those improvements are represented by the main line today, and they include the many reinforced concrete slab and steel bridges built to separate rail and vehicular traffic.The work, including roadbed improvements, was typical of the period and industry.The campaign continued through World War I, despite a significant drop in company profits due to loss of the lucrative European market during the war.The South Carolina work was largely done between 1917 and 1920, and it contributed to making the Southern Railway one of the fastest and most efficient rail lines in the region.During World War I, the SR, famous for its moniker of “Southern Serves The South”, was hauling war materials to build camps and posts along its routes and moving troops to those facilities.

The post-World War I history of the railroad reflects the company’s sound management that maintained its reputation of being an innovator.The Southern adjusted operations to accommodate higher labor costs, to provide service to more industries, to upgrade and expand its rolling stock on Florida-bound trains, including Pullman cars, and, in 1941, to initiate switching to diesel locomotives. The World War II years were busy and profitable, and the dieselization campaign was completed in 1953.The company acquired the Central of Georgia Railroad in 1963, but the end of the mighty Southern was near, as it was for most other Class 1 railroads.The SR did not join Amtrak at first, but in 1979, Amtrak took over its famed, but greatly reduced, Southern Crescent passenger service between Washington and New Orleans.In 1982, the SR merged with the Norfolk & Western Railroad, and today the historic main line is the Norfolk Southern’s principal freight line, and Amtrak uses the line and the Spartanburg depot.