L&N Railroad Bridge, Campbell County, Kentucky

The L&N Bridge, with a steam locomotive, a steam boat, and some idiots walking on the ice.


The Louisville and Nashville Railroad Bridge	We believe these are the L&N Bridge

The Island Queen, marooned by the high waters of the 1937 flood between the L&N Bridge and the Central Bridge. That's the L&N Bridge on the Ohio side. from a Paul Lind post on Facebook


	Newport end of the L&N Bridge, 1937 Flood

L & N Bridge from Newport
an etching by E. T. Hurley
from a 1919 book of sketches by Hurley, with texts by James Green.
You can read Green's text to this picture here.

Louis Vogt paints an L&N Bridge scene,
looking toward Mt. Adams


Cincinnati end of the L&N in 1937	Newport end of the L&N Bridge, 1937 Flood


The KCRR Bridge, as seen from the Cincinnati side, circa 1880		The L & N Bridge, the Ohio Side, c. 1910

Unknown year, but before Markland.


The Ohio end of the Central Bridge	The north end. From a Facebook post by Cliff Wartman	The L&N Depot on the Cincinnati side, c. 1895


	The north end

The Ohio end of the L&N Bridge, c. 1880's

L & N Bridge Data
from the US Army, Chief of Engineers, 1934

Guarding the L&N Bridge against Germans, April, 1917
From a Facebook post by Terry Garrard

These old stereoviews are c. 1880/1890

“The first lady to cross the new bridge between Cincinnati and Newport was Miss Williams, of New Liberty, Owen county, Kentucky, who was accompanied by her lover, Mr. J. Ellis, with whom she was escaping to the Ohio side from parents who ‘refused their consent to the match.’ They crossed over Wednesday on the officers train, accepting the invitation of Dr. Green, president of the Short-line road.” Courier-Journal, March 20, 1872
During the construction of the bridge, a steamboat hull was found at the bottom of the river which proved to be the wreck of the Moselle, on April 2, 1832.	A Cincinnati Enquirer 1900 article on Ohio River bridges is here.
The LC&L Bridge (Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington) Bridge, later Kentucky Central, later L&N first opened on March 20, 1872. It was the Ohio River's fifth railroad span, after other ones in Steubenville, Bellaire, Parkersburg, and Louisville. Purvis' Newport Kentucky: A Bicentennial History reports that this bridge "stimulated such rapid growth that Newport's population continued increasing at a faster pace than Cincinnati's in the 1870s. Newport would rank as one of the country's hundred largest cities by 1880."
"The reconstruction of the approaches of this bridge was practically completed at the end of December. The strengthening of the four river spans during the early summer will complete the project." L & N Annual Report, 1924	The bridge had its piers enlarged from 1895-1897, and also replaced the trusses with bigger and better ones.
Five days of the Enquirer's coverage of the bridge's opening are here. Note the mockery on the 18th of the people who walked the railroad tries across the structure.
The bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places. The application contains maps, history, pictures, and architectural details.	Barges crash into the bridge in 1942.


These are from old stereoview cards, circa 1880. At the time these were made, it was the KCRR Bridge - the Kentucky Central Railroad. L&N - The Louisville and Nashville Railroad - bought the old Kentucky Central Railroad in 1888. The KCRR was the L&N line that ran from Newport, south, through Falmouth, Paris, and on to Danville.


Bridge Construction, 1870		Why does the early version of the bridge appear as if there are piers built on top of piers? Find out here.