Smith-Ransome Japanese Bridge

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. 9 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1904.

From the record

“The Smith-Ransome Japanese Bridge of South Ferry Hills on Shelter Island, New York is one of the first 'reinforced concrete construction' structures built in North America by engineer Ernest L. Ransome for the mineral prospector known as the "Borax King", Francis Marion Smith.”
Wikipedia article Smith-Ransome Japanese Bridge, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 338 National Register listings published here for Suffolk County · listed in 2018 · category: Structure.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 structuress as contributing to the listing.
Address. Merkel Lane, Shelter Island, 11964
When was it listed? February 2018
Category. structure
Town. Shelter Island town
Architect. Ernest L. Ransome
National Register reference number. 100002080 - assigned by the National Park Service when the property was listed.

Fires near this property

65 since 1995

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 65 fires within 5 miles of Smith-Ransome Japanese Bridge between 1995 and 2020, burning about 41 acres in total. 7 started naturally. 5 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	28
Debris and open burning	11
Equipment and vehicle use	8
Natural	7
Arson/incendiarism	5
Smoking	3
Misuse of fire by a minor	2
Recreation and ceremony	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
2 September 2010	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
17 September 2011	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
10 September 2007	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
1 September 2011	Natural	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
4 August 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	1.9 acres	Fire Department of New York	NA
4 August 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Fire Department of New York	NA
4 August 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	3.0 acres	Fire Department of New York	NA
3 August 2007	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named

Every fire recorded in Suffolk County

Maps showing this location

9 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1904 USGS Shelter Island quadrangle1:62500 - 6 printings
1947 USGS Greenport quadrangle1:24000
1947 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1948 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1956 USGS Greenport quadrangle1:24000 - 3 printings
1961 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000
1962 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1965 USGS Hartford quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1983 USGS New Haven quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
James Havens Homestead	1.1 miles	1986
Manhanset Chapel	1.5 miles	1997
Smith-Taylor Cabin	1.8 miles	2007
Shelter Island Windmill	1.9 miles	1978
Sylvester Manor	2.3 miles	2015
Shelter Island Country Club	2.8 miles	2009

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 100002080 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Suffolk County	All 338 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.