325th Street Bridge

• Year constructed: 1905
• Alternate name: Calamus Creek Bridge
• Bridge type: Concrete Luten Arch
• National Register of Historic Places status: Listed
• Length: 45 feet
• Width: 16.6 feet
• Spans: 1
• FHWA: 313850
• Jurisdiction: Story County
• Location: 325th Street over Calamus Creek, 1 mile southeast of Maxwell, Section 26, T82N-R22W (Indian Creek Township)

Details

Before 1902 the Story County supervisors contracted primarily for wooden wagon bridges, occasionally purchasing iron or combination trusses for the more major crossings. In April 1902 the county first hired Des Moines bridge contractor N.M. Stark and Company to build an 80-foot truss. This represented the beginning of a 10-year relationship between county and contractor, in which Stark built virtually all of Story County's bridges. In 1905 Stark began building concrete arch bridges, based upon the patent of Indianapolis engineer Daniel Luten. One of these first concrete structures was this small-scale arch over an unnamed stream a mile southeast of Maxwell. Featuring Luten's distinctive elliptical profile and Stark's trademark concrete parapets, the bridge was to typify Stark's design and construction over the next eight years. Before the codification of bridge design in the state in 1913, Stark built perhaps hundreds of Luten arches throughout Iowa, in exclusive contracts with Story and other counties. This structure in Story County is distinguished as the earliest remaining Luten arch in the state. In fact, with its 1905 construction date, it is one of the oldest Luten arches in the country, built in the same year as Daniel Luten received his patent. For this reason, it is a technologically significant, transportation-related resource. The bridge still carries traffic today at this rural Indian Creek Township crossing, although, with moderate collision damage to the guardrails and concrete cracking and spalling of the spandrels, it is in relatively poor condition.

Adapted from Fraser 1992