National Register reference number.85001801- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The ground it stands on
14,376 words
The chapter on Ashtabula Township in History of Ashtabula County, Ohio, published 1878 names Ashtabula. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.
On arriving at Buffalo he found that all of the boats and shipping on the lake had been taken by the government, for the purpose of bringing General Har- rison's army down the lake, and the road west from Buffalo was almost impassable, having been badly cut up by the transportation of military stores. Leaving most of his goods in Buffalo, he employed two teams to transport his family and some light goods, and in nine days arrived at Erie, Pennsylvania, where he remained over two months. In the mean time the British took Buffalo and burnt it, and he lost all the goods that he had left there. He was at Erie when General Harrison arrived there from the west, and the town being crowded with soldiers and sailors, he started again, with his family and what property he had, in wagons, and arrived at Ashtabula, January 15, 1814, and being detained there by the birth of a son, and having no merchandise to sell, lie concluded to settle there.
His father and mother were with him, and as his father was a tanner, he at once started a tannery on the west side of Ashtabula creek, and continued in that business for about fifteen years. In the fall of 1827 he commenced merchandising in company with his son-in-law, Charles Crosby, and continued in the business for many years, generally in company with one of his sons.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The
federal wildfire occurrence database
lists 1 fire within 5 miles of West Fifth Street Bridge
in 2020, burning under an acre in total. None started naturally. None was 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
1
The most recent of
them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service
that recorded it.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 772 specimens
collected within 10 miles of West Fifth Street Bridge between 1872 and 1975: 661 Animalia, 102 Plantae, 7 Fungi, 1 Unrecorded, 1 Chromista.
12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A. B. Fuller, A. Woolman, Baumgardner, L. and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
8 workings within 5 miles of West Fifth Street Bridge: 4 past producers, 2 plants, 1 producer, 1 unknown.
3 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Titanium, Metal, Iron, Titanium, Pigment. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Ashtabula, the town this property stands in, in 48 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 30 thunderstorm wind, 14 hail, 4 flash flood.
No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Widespread basement and street flooding in Ashtabula, with several videos of flowing water of six inches or more across roadways. Radar estimated 2.75 to 3.5 inches of rainfall in a two to three hour period, which roughly equates to a 50 year recurrence interval.
Several roads closed due to flowing high water. Vehicles stranded in high water at West Avenue and West 34th Street, West 58th Street and Jefferson Road. Underpass on Main Avenue inundated with 5 to 6 feet of water, stranding a vehicle. Several reports of flooded basements in the area.
An ice jam on the Ashtabula River at Northcoast Marina and Yacht Club broke loose and snapped the docks apart like twigs. The river also flooded bottom land and at least one road. Other rural roads were flooded by melting piles of snow.
Widespread road flooding in Ashtabula and Plymouth areas. Some reports of basement flooding as well. Many of the roads flooded due to creeks coming out of their banks. A few cars stranded in a flooded underpass on Main Avenue in Ashtabula. Radar estimated 4 to 5.5 inches of rainfall in a 1.5 to 3 hour period. Two rain gauge reports in Plymouth reported nearly 6 inches of rainfall over a three hour period.
Trees and large limbs were downed. Hard hit was the west side of Conneaut where several roads were closed from downed trees. Utility poles were also downed along with some signs and awnings.
A 86 mph thunderstorm wind gust was measured at the Ashtabula Light House. Several dozen trees were downed in the City of Ashtabula. At least two homes were damaged by fallen trees. Other trees were downed to the west of Ashtabula in Saybrook Township.
Trained spotters estimated 60 mph winds in Ashtabula. A few trees were downed in an around the City of Ashtabula. One of the trees landed on a house trailer and caused some structural damage.
3 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
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.
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
This design is marked by overhead counterweights which are connected to in turn, simplifies the balance beam structure which reduces the total weight has a concrete filled buckle plate deck. The tower, rear approach and forward beams, while the roadway and truss moves a full 90 degrees. trusswork balance beams. This permits a smaller rotation of the deteriorated counterweights compared to the angle of rotation exhibited by the span. This, type bascule bridge.This type of bascule is marked by an overhead approach spans have reinforced concrete decks..All are reinforced with to rotate to a full right angle.During operation these hinges allow an arc Areas of Significance - Check and justify below - prehistoric _conservation - economics - sculpture - social/ X. engineering _ music -.
exploration/settlement - -philosophy _ theater _ industry - politics/government - transportation X invention Statement of
Statement of significance
(in one paragraph) The Ashtabula bridge is a Mystic type of Brown bascule bridge. This type of development of bascule bridges is illustrated in the fact that he, along with his son, were responsible for more than twelve patents in this field. Brown is his design of the original elevator in the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France. truss in place of the earlier plate girder. state level is documented. Aside from this distinction it is of local bridge has played an important role in the historical nature of the lakefront The bridge was declared eligible for the National Register on December 15, 1976 and has been the focus of a local preservation effort. 1600-1699 1925 1500-1599 1800-1899 1400-1499 communications 1700-1799 commerce Builder/Architect 8.
Significance architecture education humanitarian science literature military law Specific dates Kell-Atkinson Construction engineer of the Otis Elevator Company.One of his substantial accomplishments Historic District.The eastern span of the bridge is bounded on the north by Wendell P.Brown designed the specific bascule bridge found in Ashtabula. _archeology-historic innovators in the field of bascule bridge development:Thomas E.Brown and -agriculture sophisticated in the trusswork of the balance beams and the main span is a allowed for a simplified arrangement of the balance beam structure and reduced his son Thomas junior.
Criteria C from its counterpart in Mystic in the fact that it is slightly more Maxwell Industries Inc.and on the south by land owned by Lawler,Inc.The - other (specify) savings in cost.This design was patented in 19i0 and 1924. Thomas Brown grew up in New York City.He spent the later part of the 180o's --art X. 1900- is significant also in that it is the product of the efforts of two early built in 1922 in Mystic, Connecticut. This innovation featured overhead the steel content and weight of the structure.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 85001801, 13 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
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.
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.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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