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Reviews
| Historic Bridges of Maryland. By Dixie Legler and Carol M. Highsmith. Crownsville, Md.: Maryland Historical Trust Press, 2002. 136 pp., illus., tables. $38 hb (ISBN 1-878-399-80-2).
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This volume, cosponsored by the Maryland State Highway Administration and the Federal Highway Administration, combines text (Dixie Legler) and photographs (Carol M. Highsmith) to tell the story of bridges in Maryland's history. Riddled with large rivers and small streams and creeks, Maryland's geography has always made overland transportation difficult. Many of Maryland's historic bridges were built in connection with railroads and canals. The bridges that remain in Maryland are thus a testament to the state's industrial growth as well as to the engineers and the laborers who made it all possible.
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The main part of the book is organized into five basic sections: an introduction and one section for each of the state's four geographic regions (The Eastern Shore, Central and Southern Maryland, Northern Maryland, and Western Maryland). The introduction provides a brief overview of Maryland's transportation history, emphasizing the evolution of bridge technology. In the tidewater region, timber was the material of choice for bridge construction, while in Western Maryland abundant limestone made this material the prevalent choice through the 19th century. By the middle of the century, however, the railroad industry and Maryland's numerous iron foundries encouraged a shift from wood to stone and iron bridges. Many of the early metal bridges were actually constructed at a foundry, shipped to the building site in pieces, and assembled there. During the 20th century, increased road traffic meant that reinforced concrete was quickly adopted by engineers for bridge designs.
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Each of the geographic sections begins with an overview of that region's geography, industry, and transportation. The meat of these sections, however, is in their photographs. A historic photograph kicks off each section, but all of the other pictures are the modern work of Highsmith. A widely published architectural photographer, Highsmith showcases an amazing eye for form and contrast. Many of her photographs in this volume are works of art in themselves. Of course, this book is more than a work of art. Legler attaches meaning to the photographs with highly informative captions. Each bridge pictured is identified by name, date of construction, and location. In addition, details such as styles of construction, designer, length, use, and present condition are noted in a short paragraph. These captions do a good job of placing each bridge in its social and technological context. An added bonus in these sections is the use of arrows, rather than sometimes-confusing verbal indicators, to point from each caption to the appropriate picture.
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This book is the outgrowth of a collaborative project between the Maryland Historical Trust and the Maryland and federal highway administrations to inventory Maryland's highway bridges for the Maryland Inventory of Historical Places. This project was conducted in two phases. The first covered the years 1807 to 1947 and identified 855 bridges. The second phase, covering the years from 1948 to 1960, began in 2002 and consequently is not covered by the book. The results of the first phase, however, are published in full at the end of the book. All the historic bridges identified are listed by county and identified by city/town, year built, location, and type of construction in table format. In addition, bridges that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places and those that have been distinguished as a National Historic Landmark are identified.
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This book may be of most interest to people involved in historic preservation in Maryland or to bridge and photography buffs. General devotees of industrial archaeology will also find this book of value, however, for its excellent, easy-to-understand descriptions of various bridge designs and construction methods as well as for the information provided on important engineers. While the laborers who made the construction a possibility are not always explicitly addressed, the authors do not ignore them either, often placing bridges and their economic function in a local social context.
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One of the few problems with the book is that the different geographic regions are never fully identified by the counties they contain. It would also have been nice if the table of historic bridges at the end of the book had included page references, allowing readers to look at bridges using a more refined geographic perspective (in the geographic sections, bridges are ordered by date of construction). However, a comprehensive index somewhat compensates for this.
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| Maryland is a state that prides itself on its 17th- and 18th-century history, often at the expense of other important periods. Overall, Historic Bridges of Maryland provides a beautiful and surprisingly informative look at a type of historic resource often overlooked in this state. |
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