Blaine Hill Bridge historic marker; photo by Jasperdo on Flickr (noncommercial use permitted with attribution / no derivative works).
Official State Bicentennial Bridge of Ohio
Ohio designated the Blaine Hill Bridge as the official state bicentennial bridge in 2002. The oldest sandstone bridge in Ohio, the Blaine Hill Bridge spans Wheeling Creek in Belmont County and is considered one of Ohio's most historically and architecturally significant structures. All Ohio Symbols
The first Blaine Hill Bridge was constructed in 1828 as part of the National Road - the nation's first federally-funded highway. This three-arch S-shaped structure is 345 feet in length and spans Wheeling Creek (a tributary of the Ohio River).
The Blaine Hill bridge (located in Belmont county Ohio) is the longest original "S" bridge in existence on the old National Road. At a gradient of approximately 6.3 percent from east to west, it significantly eased, for the first time, the arduous 500-foot western climb out of the valley.
Crumbling and in poor condition, the bridge was saved from demolition in 1999. Now tucked beneath the 1933 U.S. 40 viaduct and Interstate 70, this bridge illustrates the earliest of Ohio's three eras in national highway transportation.
