Fourteenth Street Bridge (Ohio River)

Fourteenth Street Bridge
The Fourteenth Street Bridge, as viewed from the Clarksville waterfront
Carries	Louisville & Indiana Railroad and CSX Transportation
Crosses	Ohio River
Locale	Louisville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Indiana
Other name(s)	Ohio Falls Bridge
Maintained by	Louisville and Indiana Railroad
Characteristics
Design	Truss vertical-lift bridge
History
Opened	1868

The Fourteenth Street Bridge, also known as the Ohio Falls Bridge, Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge, Conrail Railroad Bridge or Louisville and Indiana (L&I) Bridge, is a truss drawbridge that spans the Ohio River, between Louisville, Kentucky and Clarksville, Indiana.

Built in 1868 by the Louisville Bridge and Iron Company, the bridge was operated for many years by the Pennsylvania Railroad, giving the company its only access to Kentucky. Ownership of the railroad and the bridge passed on to Penn Central and later Conrail, which then sold the line from Louisville to Indianapolis, Indiana to the Louisville and Indiana Railroad, the current bridge owner.

The draw portion of the bridge is a vertical-lift span, built in about 1918 in place of a swing span. The towers and machinery of the lift span were designed by Waddell and Son, Inc., and there is a plaque on the SW tower reading, "Waddell Vertical Lift Bridge, Waddell and Son, 1917". The draw span is across the upstream end of the Louisville and Portland Canal, which includes the McAlpine Locks and Dam. Ohio River traffic passes through this canal to navigate past the Falls of the Ohio.

There were attempts to build a bridge to link Louisville to the Indiana shore as early as the 1830s. James Guthrie, as the head of the Ohio Bridge Company, attempted to build such a bridge in 1829. An architect from New England, Ithiel Town, was to build a wooden structure. A cornerstone was laid for the bridge in 1836 by Twelfth Street in Louisville, but the Panic of 1837 stopped further construction. This failure, plus the unsuccessful attempt to woo the capital of Kentucky to Louisville, would become known as "Guthrie's Folly". An additional attempt was made in the 1850s, but that too would be stymied due to financing difficulties.