Ohio River Bridge Becomes Toll-Free

Friday, June 15, 1951

On this date, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the Chester Bridge officially became toll-free.

Ceremonies Held At East Liverpool

East Liverpool, O., June 15 (Special) - The state-owned Ohio River Bridge between here and Chester, W.Va., became toll-free today.

Ohio Atty. Gen. C. William O'Neill and William Ansel Jr., West Virginia state treasurer, spoke at ceremonies marking the end of tolls on the 55-year-old span.

Operated by Commision

The Bridge has been operated by the Ohio Bridge Commission since 1938. An East Liverpool delegation, headed by Chamber of Commerce President Robert Hays, had accused the commission of deliberately holding up freeing the bridge in order to keep the commission in business.

Route 30, the Lincoln Highway crosses the structure. Many Pittsburgh residents use the bridge.

The commission announced it has some $80,000 more than necessary to pay off all obligations on the East Liverpool bridge.

Impromptu Parking

Rock Springs Park was designed as a trolley park and to that end never truly established parking areas for customers arriving by automobile.   

As early as 1908 automobiles carried patrons to the park but parking was limited to found space. At first, as seen in this postcard image, that meant parking along the trolley loop near the lower entrance.

When the park was re-imagined by C.C. Macdonald in the mid to late 1920s an upper entrance was added under the third hill of his new Cyclone Roller Coaster. The aerial photograph below clearly illustrates that the trolley loop all the way back to the lake and bath house was used for parking, as was the area near the Chester High School to access the upper entrance gate.

Black Model Ts line the trolley loop and lower picnic park to the lake, as well as, near the high school to the west.



The series of photographs which follow shows that this trend continued into the late 1960s until the park closed in 1970. Most travelers from Pennsylvania parked near the lower entrance as it was the first one they encountered along Route 30. While those traveling from southern West Virginia along Route 2 or across the Chester Bridge from Ohio may have used the upper entrance more often.

The Chester Bridge Completed

Wednesday, May 26, 1897


On this date in Rock Springs Park history, the 1,466 foot Chester Bridge is completed in just over a year. The trolley had its first run three days later.

Trolley Car’s Wild Dash

The Chester Bridge in 1899. Trolley car crossing. (From East Liverpool Historical Society)

While recently viewing the 1972 film What’s Up Doc? with Barbara Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, I was reminded of my trips to San Francisco and cable car rides on the steep hills of the city. The picture ends with a wild street chase up and down San Francisco’s hilly terrain. This led me to wonder if the trolleys that ran to Rock Springs Park and traversed Chester, WV, and East Liverpool Ohio ever had to navigate such steep grades. With a little research I got my answer – A BIG “YES”.

The Chester trolley line would have been relatively flat, coming off the Chester Bridge on 1st Street then left on Virginia Avenue, right on 3rd, left on Carolina and onto the turnaround near Taylor Road and the Upper End. I imagined that East Liverpool’s route may have been more treacherous. In fact, J. E. McDonald built the bridge and created Chester, once the “South Side” of ELO, as an alternative to the hilly pottery town . My assumption about navigating the hills being dangerous was found to be correct upon discovering the story below. It recounts a trolley car’s deadly dash down a 25-foot embankment on the west end of town, and was featured in the New York Times on December 9, 1906.
Cable cars like those in San Francisco are built for hills. The driver turns a wheel or pulls a lever, in newer models, and grips the cable in a slot beneath the street and the car is pulled up the hill while clutching the moving cable driven by a powerhouse on the hilltop. Let go and hit the brakes to stop. Grab the cable and go again or let gravity pull you forward on the down grade. Electric streetcars, on the other hand, rely on overhead electric cables or a third rail beneath the car to supply electricity to a motor.
Cable Car diagram:
1. Emergency Brake Lever
2. Track Brake Lever
3. Wheel Brake lever
4. Grip Lever
5. Emergency Brake
6. Adjusting Lever
7. Grip
8. Bell
9. Rear Wheel Brake Lever
10. Track Brake
11. Wheel Brake
12. Cable

San Francisco Powerhouse showing cables in and out. (Illustrations from Cable Car Museum - 1201 Mason Street - San Francisco © 2004 - 2011 Friends of the Cable Car Museum)

Although the early electric trolleys were small, and not very powerful, they were still a lot faster than the horse cars they replaced.


When, in 1932, The Steubenville, East Liverpool & Beaver Valley Traction Company wanted to go to one operator per car in order to “offset a decrease in revenue”, The Trades and Labor Council listed the dangers of operating one-man interurban cars:

1. The cars are not equipped with the so-called “dead-man” control.
2. The line traverses hilly country where landslides are frequent.
3. Heavy fogs are frequently encountered.
4. There are many steep grades on the line.
5. Operators must give information to passengers and, on one-man cars, would be required to issue fare receipts and make change

The East Liverpool & Wellsville Street Railway began operations in 1892 serving the City of East Liverpool. In 1897 the railroad system was renamed the East Liverpool Railway and again in 1905 as the East Liverpool Traction & Light Company. This interurban operated for about ten years before changing hands again as the Steubenville, East Liverpool & Beaver Valley Traction Company, which it remained until 1939 when operations were discontinued in favor of buses.

Chester Bridge Overlook

I was saddened to read that the Chester Overlook, now the Dr. David S. Pugh Memorial Overlook, has been vandalized since it reopened last year. (Read more here.) The overlook began as the southern portal of the original Chester Bridge built to connect East Liverpool with the new town of Chester in 1897. Just three days after its inauguration, a trolley carried people from Liverpool to the grand opening of Rock Springs Park on Memorial Day 1897.



The photograph above shows the Overlook as I remember seeing it during my childhood. Below, the outline reveals where a toll booth once stood before my time.


Ironically, the photograph below, from the Review’s article, reveals the Jennings Randolph Bridge in the background through the gap created when vandals “pried up large stone blocks from the top of the wall and tossed them into the river.” The original Chester Bridge marked the beginning of the life of Rock Springs Amusement Park while the truss bridge in the distance marked its end. (Photo by Nancy Tullis of the East Liverpool Review)

Park Owners and Potters Were Traction Magnates

According to the publication, Glass & Pottery World, Volumes 11-12, Rock Springs Park owner C.A. Smith and his brother W.L. Smith of the Taylor Smith and Taylor and McNicol potteries were also “developing rapidly into traction magnates.” In August 1903, the Smith Brothers were granted a franchise by the court at New Cumberland to add a second electric railway line to the one which connected Rock Springs Park to East Liverpool via the Chester Bridge. “The Smith syndicate has announced that it will begin operations forthwith, and states that they expect to have cars running before the year closes."

To the west, potters Joseph G. Lee and W.E. Wells of Newell, West Virginia, along with a grant from the U.S. government, were planning to construct a bridge across the Ohio River (The Newell Bridge) and running their own electric railway line from East Liverpool to their, then secret, industry site in Newell. “The Plans of the Lee syndicate have not been made public, but there is little doubt they have something interesting up their sleeves, as the Newell site has no equal now along the Ohio valley, and would be simply perfect for the location of an immense steel plant, and it is freely rumored that something good in the industrial line is practically assured to Newell.” The “immense plant” would not be for steel but rather the world’s largest pottery plant ever constructed, The Homer Laughlin China Company. Looking to expand and finding no available land in East Liverpool W.E. Wells and Homer Laughlin chose to build Plant 2 across the Ohio River in what is now Newell, West Virginia. The company’s history claims, “The proposed site was farm land, about three miles in length, lying about 50 to 100 feet above the Ohio River.” The location would have access to the railroad, abundant fuel, and improving river navigation. In order to develop the land into a usable industrial site, the Laughlin company created the North American Manufacturing Company to undertake such tasks as building a water system, laying out streets, and selling lots. In 1901 the only way to cross from East Liverpool to Newell was by ferry, but in June 1904 work began on a new metal suspension bridge. On July 4, 1905, the first traffic used the bridge, and to this day the company’s toll bridge serves the people on both sides of the river. The population of Newell grew rapidly.

Connected with Plant 2 was a 100-acre recreational park. It was situated in the valley just south of the plant and included a spring-fed brook, a lake, a zoo, a formal garden, and an outdoor theater where vaudeville players appeared and silent movies were shown. This park was the conception of George Washington Clarke, perhaps the greatest salesman in the history of dinnerware. His work in the Middle West was largely responsible for the expansion of the company, and he devoted much of his income to beautifying the company’s park. Tragically, he did not live long after the park was built, succumbing to an apparent heart attack in 1911. Laurel Hollow Park has been recently reclaimed. Check out their website at http://www.laurelhollowpark.net/.

Completed in 1905, the Newell Bridge is historically important as one of the first all-steel suspension bridges.