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canyonwalkerOhio Waterfalls Travelog #21
Wheeling, WV · Mon, 20 Apr 2026. 3pm
Update: Wow, this blog got delayed way longer than I expected. Do you remember where we were a few hours before this?
As we got back to the car after our previous hike, Rockstall Falls outside of Logan, Ohio, Hawk and I were discussing what to do with the rest of the day. Our hotel reservation tonight is in Columbus, and we had nothing else planned. It was only 12:30pm.
"Here's a wild idea," I said. "Let's go to Wheeling, West Virginia!"
Why? Why not? ...Or maybe "Just so we can take a shit on West Virginia and leave." (Yes, I proposed that. Hawk countered that we could eat lunch there... then shit on WV and leave. 🤣)
As I drove us out of the deeply rural parts of Ohio and onto a state road where we could get signal, Hawk looked up things to do in Wheeling on her phone. "There's a bridge there, over the Ohio River. It's a park. You can walk over the bridge."
That sounded like more fun than than eating, shitting, and leaving. Especially because, timing-wise, we'd want to eat long before getting to Wheeling. 😅 Little did I know, though, what "You can walk over the bridge" would mean.
You see, I'm a bridge buff. I have been since I was 6 and wanted to be a civil engineer when I grew up, designing bridges, tunnels, and skyscrapers.
There are bridges, then there are bridges. This bridge turns out to be a cable-stayed suspension bridge. And it was built in 1846-1849.
Back when I was 6 (and 8, and 12, and maybe even after that) I was always fascinated by all the bridges and tunnels we'd cross when my parents would drive us to New York City to visit my grandmother, I always wanted to be awake for all the bridges and tunnels. Even if it was 3am.
My favorite bridge back then was the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in NYC. It was the longest main span suspension bridge from the time it was finished, in 1964, until 1981. Its center span was longer than that of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a fact my childhood friends always fought me on. And it remains the longest main span bridge in the western hemisphere.
The Verrazano was superlative for its scale but not its design. The architecture of the bridge, a cable-stayed suspension bridge, was proved historically in 1883 by the Brooklyn Bridge. You know what the Brooklyn Bridge looks like, right? Picture it....
Boom. There it is, right? Wrong. This is a photo I took today, in Wheeling. This is the bridge over the Ohio River in Wheeling, West Virginia. And it was built 34 years before the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, in 1849 it wasn't even in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was in Wheeling, Virginia. This bridge predates not just the way more famous Brooklyn Bridge, it predates the US Civil War!
The main span of this bridge is 1010' feet, very short compared to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge's 4,260 feet, but not too far off the Brooklyn Bridge's 1595.5 feet.
This bridge was also part of the early interstate highway system.
Everyone in the US knows the modern interstate highway system. You know, the roads we all prefix with "I-". I-5, I-10, I-90, I-95. The roads that were built after WWII. But before them was an older interstate highway system, the US routes. US-1, US-40, US-101, etc. In fact US-40 was routed over this bridge for many years. (Now it's routed over a newer bridge about 100 meters away, along with I-70.) But before even US-40 and its kin there was... The National Road.
Yes, The National Road.
It's like The Area Code when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Back then everyone's phone number was just "1". 😂
The National Road was authorized by Congress in 1806 and signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson. Initially the road traversed from Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio River in Wheeling, Virginia. In 1825 they started building the National Road on the other side of the river. The road eventually extended to Illinois. But travelers on the road— horse riders— had to cross the river here by ferry. This early suspension bridge created a continuous link from the outskirts of Baltimore to the midwest. It was like the Route 66 of the pre-Civil War era.
Wheeling, WV · Mon, 20 Apr 2026. 3pm
Update: Wow, this blog got delayed way longer than I expected. Do you remember where we were a few hours before this?
As we got back to the car after our previous hike, Rockstall Falls outside of Logan, Ohio, Hawk and I were discussing what to do with the rest of the day. Our hotel reservation tonight is in Columbus, and we had nothing else planned. It was only 12:30pm.
"Here's a wild idea," I said. "Let's go to Wheeling, West Virginia!"
Why? Why not? ...Or maybe "Just so we can take a shit on West Virginia and leave." (Yes, I proposed that. Hawk countered that we could eat lunch there... then shit on WV and leave. 🤣)
As I drove us out of the deeply rural parts of Ohio and onto a state road where we could get signal, Hawk looked up things to do in Wheeling on her phone. "There's a bridge there, over the Ohio River. It's a park. You can walk over the bridge."
That sounded like more fun than than eating, shitting, and leaving. Especially because, timing-wise, we'd want to eat long before getting to Wheeling. 😅 Little did I know, though, what "You can walk over the bridge" would mean.
You see, I'm a bridge buff. I have been since I was 6 and wanted to be a civil engineer when I grew up, designing bridges, tunnels, and skyscrapers.
There are bridges, then there are bridges. This bridge turns out to be a cable-stayed suspension bridge. And it was built in 1846-1849.
An Early Version of a Modern Bridge
Okay, those last two sentences probably mean very little to you. Like they would've meant very little to me at age 6 when I first wanted to be a civil engineer. By my teens I became more interested in computer science than civil engineering. But I never gave up on bridges. I took a civil engineering course in college. I entered a bridge design in a contest. I won.Back when I was 6 (and 8, and 12, and maybe even after that) I was always fascinated by all the bridges and tunnels we'd cross when my parents would drive us to New York City to visit my grandmother, I always wanted to be awake for all the bridges and tunnels. Even if it was 3am.
My favorite bridge back then was the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in NYC. It was the longest main span suspension bridge from the time it was finished, in 1964, until 1981. Its center span was longer than that of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a fact my childhood friends always fought me on. And it remains the longest main span bridge in the western hemisphere.
The Verrazano was superlative for its scale but not its design. The architecture of the bridge, a cable-stayed suspension bridge, was proved historically in 1883 by the Brooklyn Bridge. You know what the Brooklyn Bridge looks like, right? Picture it....
Boom. There it is, right? Wrong. This is a photo I took today, in Wheeling. This is the bridge over the Ohio River in Wheeling, West Virginia. And it was built 34 years before the Brooklyn Bridge. In fact, in 1849 it wasn't even in Wheeling, West Virginia. It was in Wheeling, Virginia. This bridge predates not just the way more famous Brooklyn Bridge, it predates the US Civil War!
The main span of this bridge is 1010' feet, very short compared to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge's 4,260 feet, but not too far off the Brooklyn Bridge's 1595.5 feet.
This bridge was also part of the early interstate highway system.
Everyone in the US knows the modern interstate highway system. You know, the roads we all prefix with "I-". I-5, I-10, I-90, I-95. The roads that were built after WWII. But before them was an older interstate highway system, the US routes. US-1, US-40, US-101, etc. In fact US-40 was routed over this bridge for many years. (Now it's routed over a newer bridge about 100 meters away, along with I-70.) But before even US-40 and its kin there was... The National Road.
Yes, The National Road.
It's like The Area Code when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Back then everyone's phone number was just "1". 😂
The National Road was authorized by Congress in 1806 and signed into law by President Thomas Jefferson. Initially the road traversed from Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio River in Wheeling, Virginia. In 1825 they started building the National Road on the other side of the river. The road eventually extended to Illinois. But travelers on the road— horse riders— had to cross the river here by ferry. This early suspension bridge created a continuous link from the outskirts of Baltimore to the midwest. It was like the Route 66 of the pre-Civil War era.
