USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > A history of Cleveland, Ohio, Volume I > Part 9
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The city council, October 29, 1837, ordered the marshal to keep an armed guard near the bridge. But the courts soon put a stop to the petty quarrel be- tween the two villages.
In ten years the old bridge had grown too small, and in 1846 agitation was begun to build a larger one. The towns could not agree on a plan, Ohio City maintaining that Cleveland owned only to the middle of the river. The county promptly settled the dispute and built the bridge. In 1870, Columbus street was sull "one of the leading thoroughfares," and an iron bridge was built, which was replaced in 1898 by a new bridge at a cost of eighty thousand dollars. The draw of this bridge is operated by electricity.
DIVISION STREET BRIDGE.
The natural route from downtown Cleveland to the west side was by way of Division street; a bridge was built in 1853. It was a wooden drawbridge, and the railroad age soon made it necessary to replace it with an iron structure.
SENECA STREET BRIDGE.
In 1857, the city engineer reported that the Seneca street bridge collapsed, "being overloaded with cattle." A new one replaced it. It was a wooden bridge of the type then common, with a draw operated by hand. The city council
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
had sent a committee to Chicago, the previous year to study bridges, there having been a good deal of agitation over the question whether two or three should be built. The wooden bridge was replaced some years later by an iron one; and in 1888 another bridge was built with one pivot span of one hundred and eighty feet, and one fixed span of one hundred and five feet.
June 25, 1903, the city completed the new Middle Seneca street bride. It is a Sherzer Roller lift bridge, the first of its kind built by the city. It has a road- way of twenty-three feet, eight inches wide, and two six foot walks. It cost one hundred and sixty thousand, and seventy-two dollars and forty-four cents.
MAIN STREET BRIDGE.
This bridge was one of the first iron bridges built in the city. It was com- pleted July 3, 1869, and was two hundred feet long, and thirty-one feet wide. In 1885 it was rebuilt and the draw operated by steam.
LIGHTHOUSE STREET BRIDGE.
This bridge, later known as Willow street bridge, was authorized by the city and the state board of public works, in August, 1856. It was much opposed by the marine interests. In 1898 a new bridge with its draw operated by electricity, was put in place.
CENTER STREET BRIDGE.
A wooden drawbridge was built in 1863. Within a decade it became unsafe, and in 1871 plans were made to replace it with an iron draw, "Post patent di- agonal truss," made by the McNairy & Claflin Manufacturing Company at a cost of thirteen thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars. In 1900 a new bridge was completed, at a cost of fifty-seven thousand dollars.
JEFFERSON STREET BRIDGE.
This bridge crossing the river and canal was planned 1871. It was completed the following year, at a cost of thirty-nine thousand, two hundred and seventy- five dollars and thirty-five cents. Eighteen thousand, one hundred and sixty-four lineal feet of piles were used in its substructure. The draw over the river was one hundred and fifty feet long, and the span over the canal one hundred and seventeen feet. The approaches were each twenty feet wide. The bridge was of iron, made by the King Iron Bridge Company, and at that time it was the finest bridge in the city.
WALWORTH RUN VIADUCT.
This was the first of the large viaducts built by the city. It was built to span the Walworth run and the Big Four tracks, was built of iron, with three spans, one hundred feet, seventy-five feet, and eighty-five feet, respectively. The total cost was seventy-nine thousand, two hundred and fifty-four dollars and thirty cents.
.... ..
ARES OF R. R. MERRICK ESQ
:- PROSPECT COURT FROM NA 22010 236 PHOSPFAT ÎT CLEVELAND, OHIO
From an old lithograph
PROSPECT AVENUE NEAR CASE AVENUE, IN 1873 One of the first terraces erected in Cleveland, still standing.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
In 1886-7 it was rebuilt of iron and steel, with a forty foot roadway paved with pine blocks, and two walks each eight feet wide.
THE CENTRAL WAY.
The Central way was opened under the tracks of the Cleveland and Wheeling railway in 1872, and it became the principal thoroughfare for heavy traffic of the iron mills and refineries in that section.
In February, 1883, the old wooden drawbridge in lower Central way, the last of the old wooden bridges in this city, was swept away by the big flood, and a new iron bridge, one hundred and eighty-three feet long replaced it.
SUPERIOR STREET VIADUCT.
But all these bridges did not do away with the slow and laborious travel down the hills and across the flats to the other side of the river. More direct means of communication were necessary. A high level bridge was advocated in the '60s. Meetings were often held to bring the subject to a focus. Great opposition developed by parties who had pecuniary interests at stake and the site of the bridge was the subject of heated controversy. It was not until 1870 that the matter took definite shape, when Mayor Stephen Buhrer and the city council determined upon a plan of procedure. January 30, 1872, John Huntington in- troduced 'a resolution into the city council providing for a special committee to report on the feasibility of a bridge across the river at Superior street and to confer with the officials of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and St. Louis railway. This committee consisted of Mayor F. W. Pelton, the city engineer, C. H. Strong, John Huntington and H. W. Luetkemeyer. On the 19th of March this committee made an extensive report detailing two routes and their cost, one from the Atwater building on Superior street to the junction of Pearl and Frank- lin streets, and the other from the corner of Merwin and Superior streets to the intersection of Pearl and Detroit streets. The latter route was favored and after the general assembly had granted the requisite authority, the voters of the city gave it their approval by a majority of five thousand, four hundred and fifty-one. The plan involved, first, the lowering of the Big Four tracks so that
the bridge could pass over them; the tracks were lowered so that they passed under the crossing at Champlain, South Water, Superior, Union, St. Clair and Spring streets. The cost of this alone was estimated at five hundred and sixty- five thousand, five hundred and forty-nine dollars, of which the city paid three hundred and twenty-five thousand, three hundred dollars. Second, the vacating of the canal from near Superior street to near the city limits, about three miles, including the old weigh lock and the two locks entering the river, the city to make a new entrance to the river at the new terminus of the canal. The state had leased the canal to a private corporation, and these lessees were paid one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars by the city. This was "virtually a gift," as the mayor said (1877), because their lease expired May 31, 1881. The cost to the city of moving the locks and vacating the canal bed was three hundred and sixty thousand dollars.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
A great many injunction suits pertaining to the securing of the right of way, hindered the progress of the work. It was not until December 27, 1878, that the bridge was completed, and the total cost was two million, one hundred and seventy thousand dollars. It was opened a free bridge, although the original act allowed the collecting of toll.
The bridge, at the time, was one of the notable engineering feats of the country. Its total length is three thousand, two hundred and eleven feet; its width, ex- clusive of the draw, sixty-four feet, the roadway being forty-two feet and the sidewalk eleven feet in width. The draw is three hundred and thirty-two feet long and forty-six feet wide; its roadway being thirty-two feet, and its walks seven feet. The draw is seventy feet above high water mark. The western end of the bridge is supported by ten stone arches, eight of eighty-three feet span and two of ninety-seven and one-half feet span. In the foundation, seven thousand, two hundred and seventy-nine piles were used, eighty thousand, five hundred and eight perches of stone in the masonry, and fifteen thousand, five hundred yards of gravel filling. The pile foundations bear an approximate weight of one hun- dred and forty thousand tons of the ten great aches, and twelve thousand, five hundred tons of the iron work, while the draw piers support six hundred and ten tons.
On December 28, 1878, the great bridge was dedicated to the public. The Cleve- land light artillery fired the federal salute at daybreak. At 10:30 a. m., there was a gay parade, the military and civil orders, the fire department and citizens forming the ranks, and at 12:30 a mass meeting was held in the old Tabernacle, at the corner of Ontario and St. Clair streets, where the new Engineer's build- ing is now in the course of erection. Here addresses were made by Mayor Rose, Governor Bishop of Ohio, Governor Mathews of West Virginia, and others. In the evening a banquet was given at the Weddell house. Hon. Amos Townsend who had represented this district in congress was toastmaster.
On the 29th the bridge was opened for the public use, and from that day to the present a constantly increasing stream of traffic has demonstrated its need.
The drawbridge was opened three thousand, three hundred and eight times the first year, and three thousand, five hundred and seventy-two vessels passed through.
In 1905 the swing span was widened from thirty-two to thirty-six feet, and in 1908 the Superior avenue approach was widened and a shelter platform erected for passengers waiting for street cars.
KINGSBURY RUN VIADUCT.
The necessity of a bridge between Davis and Humboldt streets was felt be- fore 1880. In 1883 the city engineer suggested a plan; the following year con- tracts were let at an estimated cost of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the substructure was begun late in 1884. In July, 1886, it was opened to the public. This bridge is eight hundred and thirty-four feet long. On December 15, 1886, Kingsbury run trestle was completed. It is of wood, four hundred and ninety and one-half feet long with a thirty-six foot roadway and two foot-
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
ways, each six feet wide. The cost was seven thousand, eight hundred and eighty-four dollars and sixty-seven cents. It was designed to ultimately fill in the trestle with soil.
PETRIE STREET BRIDGE.
In July, 1887, a timber trestle, five hundred feet long was completed over Mor- gan run, at a cost of five thousand, four hundred and thirty-one dollars and thirteen cents. The bridge has a twenty foot roadway and two walks, each four and one-half feet. It is seventy feet above the run.
CENTRAL VIADUCT.
The growing demands of the south side for better access to the city, were finally pressed upon the city council. March 3, 1879, James M. Curtiss, repre- senting that section of the city in the council, introduced a resolution directing the city engineer to report on the best plan for a bridge to the south side. But nothing was done until 1883, when the council directed a popular vote on the question, which was carried in the affirmative by six hundred majority, and the council authorized the expenditure of one million dollars. The usual conten- tions as to location were brought to an end by the adoption, in July, 1885, of the route from the junction of Ohio and Hill streets to Jennings avenue.
In December, 1885, the city council passed an ordinance authorizing its construction. November, 1886, bids were opened for the substructure, and two weeks later for the superstructure. On May 5, ground was broken for the south pier, and from that day the work proceeded without serious delay or interrup- tion, and on December 1I, 1888, the bridge was opened to the public. A pro- cession of soldiers and citizens crossed the Superior viaduct, thence by way of the new Abbey street viaduct to the entrance of the Central viaduct, where it halted for the final ceremony of transferring the bridge from the builders to the city. Zenas King spoke in behalf of the King Iron Bridge and Manufactur- ing Company and other contractors, and Mayor B. D. Babcock accepted the bridge. The procession then proceeded across the new viaduct to the city hall, where it was reviewed by the city officials. In the evening a banquet was given at the Hollenden hotel.
This is the longest bridge in the city. Its total length is three thousand, nine hundred and thirty-one feet; the Walworth run span is one thousand and ninety- two feet; the Cuyahoga river span is two thousand, eight hundred and thirty- nine feet, the roadway is forty feet wide, and the walks each eight feet. It is one hundred and one feet above high water mark. In the piers sixty-four thousand, four hundred and forty-two lineal feet of oak were used, and seven- teen thousand, four hundred and seventy-two feet of protection ; seven hundred and sixty-two thousand, eight hundred and ninety-one feet of oak foundation timber, and one hundred and eighty-six thousand, five hundred and forty-nine feet of pine foundation timber were use. In the foundation, one hundred and fifty-two thousand pounds of iron were used and four thousand, five hundred and eighty-four yards of concrete, and seventeen thousand and ninety-two yards of masonry. In the superstructure there are four thousand, five hundred and
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
fifty-two tons of iron. The cost of the viaduct was six hundred and seventy- five thousand, five hundred and seventy-four dollars, of the approaches twenty- two thousand, four hundred and seventy-two dollars. The entire cost includ- ing approaches and right of way, was eight hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars. The amount authorized was one million dollars. Time of construction, two years, seven and one-half months. The bridge has been a perennial source of discussion as to its safety. Only six years after its completion, the city en- gineer reported that the hillside on the west side of the river was slipping at the rate of one inch per year, and thereby moving slightly the piers embedded in the slope, and that the pedestals in the vicinity of Seneca street were slipping. Some years later cast iron blocks were placed on the tops of the pedestals to overcome the effects of settling.
On November 16, 1895, an electric car was run over the open draw and plunged into the valley, killing seventeen persons.
In 1906 the city engineer found that the west hillside had slipped toward the river twenty inches in twenty years.
BROOKLYN VIADUCT.
Brooklyn viaduct, over Big creek, connecting South Brooklyn with the city, was completed in 1895. It is one thousand, five hundred and seventy-five feet long.
WILLET STREET VIADUCT.
This bridge was begun in 1898. It has seven spans of steel, four hundred and ninety-five feet long, four hundred and forty-five 'feet of earth filled ap- proaches, total length of nine hundred and forty feet. It connects Willet street and Rhodes avenue.
WILLSON AVENUE VIADUCT
was built by the city and the Nickel Plate railway. It is one thousand, one hundred and thirty-four feet long.
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DIVISION II. POPULATION.
Location
Euchid
of the ancient carth works of the Cuyahoga valley Cuy: Co. Ohio. 18TO.
Fast
Erie
Cleveland.
Cleveland City
Newburg
+
Brighton.
NO
+
50 g
Bedford.
Independence
+
+
0
Northfield.
o'yu River.
NO.5
Brecksville.
+
0
Richfield
Peninsula
+ NO0
NO).
NO8.
0
NO 11. Weymouth
North
NO 10.
O
+
Granger.
1
1
Portage o
Tuyahaga
Explanations.
Fall's
Earth mounds.
Ancient Forts
Cachès.
Akrrona
Present villages
Scale 5 mi to the inch
MAP BY COL. CHARLES WHITTLESEY, SHOWING LOCATION OF INDIAN MOUNDS IN THE CUYAHOGA VALLEY
Bath
Hampton .
CHAPTER VII.
THE MOUNDBUILDERS AND THE INDIANS.
There are numerous evidences in the Cuyahoga valley that the Mound- builders haunted these regions. Their coming and going is shrouded in silence. Not even a tradition lingers to point the way to the solution of their origin or fate, though scientists now generally hold that they were the ancestors of the Indians. Ohio was one of their favorite hunting grounds. The remains of their structures are abundant on the Muskingum, the Scioto and the Ohio, and along the southern shore of Lake Erie. But there is a marked contrast between the nature of their work in the northern and southern parts of the state. In the southern portion the ruins are on a magnificent scale. Those at Marietta, Zanes- ville and Portsmouth especially appeal to the imagination, with their vast en- closures of many acres and their fantastic shapes. But in our neighborhood the ruins are insignificant in size. They are mostly circles, mounds, and on the pointed tongues of land that project into the Cuyahoga valley are found the re- mains of ridges and trenches. The mounds are burial places and the embank- ments are fortifications.
Colonel Charles Whittlesey made a careful survey of these remains in the Cuyahoga valley. His valuable work is preserved in the "Smithsonian Contri- butions," volume 3, and in numerous tracts of the Western Reserve Historical Society. The accompanying map shows four mounds in the city limits. "About the year 1820 one which stood on the lot of the Methodist church, at the corner of Euclid and Erie streets [now the Cleveland Trust Company], was partially opened by Dr. T. Garlick and his brother Abel."1 Only a few implements of polished slate were found.
Another mound was on Sawtell avenue (East 53rd St.), near Woodland avenue. It was partially opened in 1870 by Colonel Whittlesey and Judge Baldwin. But Andrew Freese upon whose land it was located did not wish it demolished, so the openings were slight. A few implements were found. The mound was five feet high, forty feet long, twenty-five feet wide. The land on which it stood was later owned by J. G. Hobbie, who had married the daughter of Mr. Freese. In January, 1909, he had the mound opened and the ground leveled. Professor Mathews of Western Reserve University, and Mr. Cathcart and Mr. Dyer of the Historical society were present. Only a few implements were
1 Whittlesey "Early Ancient Earth Forts of the Cuyahoga Valley," p. 25.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
found and they were placed in the Historical society. When the Woodland ceme- tery was laid out the mound found there was preserved.
There are numerous ancient forts or embankments in the river valley to the south of the city. They were systematically surveyed by Colonel Whittlesey in 1869-70, with the help of Dr. J. H. Salisbury, Dr. Elisha Sterling and Judge C. C. Baldwin, of the Historical society. Some years previous to this Colonel Whittlesey had surveyed the two forts in Newburg township. They are now in the city limits. The first was on the old Newburg road on land formerly owned by Dr. H. A. Ackley. It consisted of two regular parallel embankments about two feet high thrown across the neck of a narrow peninsula that juts into the river valley with deep ravines on either side. A mound near this embank- ment was, in 1847, ten feet high but much plowing has virtually demolished it. The other fort in Newburg township is located on the right bank of the river about one and a half mile below Lock 8, on the canal. It is the smallest of the fortifications in the valley. "In 1850 it had not been long under cultivation and the elevation of the wall above the bottom of the ditch varies from four to six feet."2
The only rock inscription in this vicinity is the famous sculptured rock at Independence. It has not been determined whether it is of Indian or Mound- builder origin. The stone was discovered about 1853, and it was suggested by W. F. Bushnell, a deacon of the Presbyterian church of that place, that it be placed for preservation in the wall of the church then being built. This was done and its markings remain clear and well defined. It was described in 1869 by Dr. J. H. Salisbury of Cleveland, an authority on western archaeology and rock inscription. A photograph and drawing were made at the same time.3
But the builders and users of these forts had vanished when the white man arrived in the Cuyahoga valley, great forest trees covered the ruins and the land was possessed by the red race.
Most of the tribes of Indians in this portion of America were warlike. Like all peoples in the hunting stage they had no permanent abode. Their migra- tions and their wars make it difficult to fix the geographical location of the numerous tribes. Wars, not infrequently, exterminated whole tribes; or forced the amalgamation of several tribes; or drove the scattered remnants to far distant hunting grounds. The Great Lakes region was one of their favorite haunts and the south shore of Lake Erie was the scene of fierce intertribal warfare.
Our knowledge of early tribal movements is meager and indistinct. There are several tribes, however, that have certainly occupied or held sway over these regions, the Wyandots and Hurons, the Ottawas, the Neutral nation, the Andastes, the Eries and the Iroquois.
The Hurons and Wyandots occupied the region between Lake Huron and Ontario. In 1649 the Iroquois almost destroyed them. A remnant settled near Quebec, but the larger number moved westward to Wisconsin. These latter were, however, driven back by the Dacotahs and about 1680 settled near Detroit and extended their hunting excursions as far as Sandusky bay. By 1706 they led great war parties to the Scioto and the Ohio against the Cherokees and
2 Whittlesey "Ancient Earth Forts in the Cuyahoga Valley," p. 10.
' See Whittlesey "Ancient Earth Forts of the Cuyahoga Valley."
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND
Shawnees, in 1732 they laid claim to all of Ohio and by the Revolution were a strong group with Sandusky as their central point.
The Nation de Petun, or Tobacco nation, Tionontates, or Dinondadies occupied the land on the north shore of Lake Erie. They also were conquered by the Iroquois and their remnants amalgamated with the Hurons or Wyandots.
The Ottawas in 1640 occupied northern Michigan. They were friendly with the Wyandots and Hurons and after their dispersion they also fled beyond the Mississippi. But they came back to the lake regions in 1709, and in 1747, at the request of their earlier allies, the remnants of the Hurons and the Wyandots around Sandusky, they settled on the south shore of Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Maumee.
In 1609 the Neutral nation occupied the land on the Niagara river and the east end of Lake Erie. They were a populous and peaceful branch of the Huron family and received their name because of their unwarlike attitude in the Huron-Iroquois warfare. But the fierce Iroquois, in 1651, made war on them and scattered their people; some joined their kinsfolk the Wyandot-Hurons and some were absorbed by the Senecas of the Iroquois confederacy.
The Andantes or Andastes were an extensive tribe occupying the headwaters of the Allegheny, and from thence eastward to the Susquehanna. In 1672 they were completely blotted out by the merciless Iroquois.
The tribe of peculiar interest to us is that from which our lake takes its name, the Eries, Erries, Erigas, Errieonons, or Riquehronons, the Nation of Chat or Cat, or Raccoon. "But little is known of the Eries; they were, perhaps, never visited by but one white, Etienne Brulé, in 1615, soliciting aid for the Hurons. The brief report of Champlain of this journey leaves it doubtful if Brulé ever saw Lake Erie. It is said, in 1646, that in approaching the Erie country from the east, 'there is a thick, oily, stagnant water which takes fire like brandy.' The Relations of 1648, written among the Hurons, says that the Andastes were be- low the Neutrals, reaching a little toward the east and toward New Sweden. That Lake Erie was formerly inhabited along its south coast by the Cat nation, who had been obliged to draw well inland to avoid their enemies from the west. They had a quantity of fixed villages for they cultivated the earth and had the same language as the Hurons. Charlevoix says that the Iroquois obtained from the country of the ancient Eries 'apple trees with fruit in the shape of a goose's egg and a seed that is a kind of bean. This fruit is fragrant and very delicate. It is a dwarf tree, requiring a moist, rich soil.' This can be no other than the pawpaw abundant in southern Ohio, particularly along the river and common in the center of the state."4
"The Hurons, Neutrals, Iroquois, Eries and 'Andastes lay so completely to- gether that their history evidently had much in common. It is safe to assume that all the southern of these tribes emigrated from the north. *
* * It appears then with some clearness that the Eries emigrated from the northeast to the region of Ohio and had likely occupied northern Ohio at least a hundred and fifty years." 5 In the height of their power, about 1640, they held
4 Baldwin "Early Indian Migration in Ohio," Western Reserve Historical Society, Tract No. 47, p. 4.
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