A 700-foot, three-span, inclined tied-arch, the Main Street Bridge spans the Scioto River from Downtown Columbus into Franklinton ahead of you. Up close you can admire its inclined single-rib-tied arch superstructure — the first in North America and only the fifth in the world to use this daring arrangement. This crossing carries Main Street — U.S. Route 62 and Ohio State Route 3 — northwest from Downtown Columbus into Franklinton, splitting into Rich and Starling Streets just west of where you stand.
The bridge you see is the culmination of a long story: the original Whipple through truss was built in 1890, lengthened in 1917 with two salvaged railroad spans, and then replaced in the 1930s by an art-deco, open-spandrel concrete deck arch built in 1937. That 1937 span later joined the Scioto River Bridge Group, listed on the Columbus Register of Historic Properties in 1983 and nominated to the National Register as part of the Columbus Civic Center Historic District in 1988, but after years of degradation from weather and traffic it was deemed unfit and closed in 2002. Notice the $60.1 million arch stretching across the Scioto toward Downtown and into Franklinton.