Program

Historic Transportation

Subject

Industry & Commerce, Site, Transportation

Location

456 Putnam Ave, Zanesville, OH 43701, USA

Lat/Long

39.93179, -82.006813

Grant Recipient

Muskingum County History

The one-story wood framed bridge tender’s building was constructed in 1914 on the east side of the Sixth Street Bridge, located approximately one-third of a mile north of its present location. Known also as the bridge tender’s gate house or utility building, the structure housed the lift span control mechanism for the lift section over the Muskingum River Canal. Steel beams encased in concrete elevated the building to the level of the bridge deck.

The original Sixth Steet Bridge was constructed in 1885 and consisted of wrought iron trusses and a swing truss spanning the canal. It was washed away in March 1913 during a disastrous flood. The replacement bridge, built in 1914 and opened to the public in 1916, consisted of four steel trusses and a bascule lift to accommodate canal traffic.

When this bridge was slated for replacement in the late 1990s, the City of Zanesville relocated the Tender’s Building to the Pioneer and Historical Society of Muskingum County property for preservation. This is the only surviving example of a building used to house the controls for a lift span over a canal that was a part of the Muskingum River Improvement and is a reminder of the commercial use of the river. (Muskingum County History, 2024).