Suspension bridge reopens in park

A ribbon-cutting
commemorating the
reopening is set for
Tuesday.

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — To some, it’s the silver or suspension bridge. The more romantic among us call it the Cinderella or Fairytale bridge.

Whatever you call it, one of the most recognizable features of Mill Creek Park will reopen this week after a summerlong rehabilitation project.

“It’s the oldest surviving bridge in the park,” said Steve Avery, the park’s chief landscape architect.

The 86-foot span on Valley Drive over Mill Creek was built in 1895 by the Youngstown Bridge Co.

A Federal Highway Administration grant paid 80 percent of the $523,000 project with park funds covering the remainder. Dot Construction Inc. of Canfield was the contractor.

“This is possibly the most extensive rehabilitation since it was built,” Avery said, adding that the rehab completed in the early 1930s also may have been major as well.

A rehab project also was completed in 1973.

In 1976, the bridge earned placement on the National Registry of Historic Places.

The park plans a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the reopening at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The project involved rehabilitation, repair, cleaning and painting, and restoring structural integrity while maintaining the bridge’s historic flavor.

David Spurio, vice president of Dot Construction, is a lifelong area resident, driving over the bridge thousands of times.

“It was a pleasure to work on this bridge,” he said.

Several years ago, Spurio’s wife, Donna, commissioned an artist to create a wood-burnt picture of the bridge for her husband. The piece hangs in a brass frame in his Canfield office.

He said the project wasn’t difficult, but there were a few unusual aspects.

One was that the bridge was originally constructed using rivets. Not a lot of people perform that skill these days, but the park district wanted to preserve the historic character.

“It was actually fun to do it — to see what laborers back then had to deal with,” Spurio said.

In working on the project, park officials also discovered some things about the old bridge. At the suggestion of some historic preservationists, the park did an analysis on the bridge’s paint, determining white was its original color.

A photograph in “The Green Cathedral,” a book about the park’s history, written in 1976 by Dr. John Melnick, identifies it as the “white bridge.” Avery said it’s been painted four times over the years.

The rehabilitation project maintained the most recent silver hue, however.

“This whole generation now, we call it the silver bridge,” he said.

They also found out that the spires at the front and back of the bridge formerly included metal scrolls at the top that had broken off over time. Using old photographs, workers recreated the old decoration and included that in the rehabilitation.