Each arch was composed of 37 ringstones, including the keystone, one for each state in the Union through Nebraska's admission as the 37th state in 1867. The 37 states and their admission dates ran from Delaware on December 7, 1787, through Nebraska on March 1, 1867. The great American conflict known by many names, including the Civil War, War of Rebellion, War of Secession, War Between the States, Freedom War, War for Southern Independence, and War of Northern Aggression, pitted government against government, state against state, and brother against brother, and tore at the nation over which President Lincoln presided. Lincoln's leadership was remembered for preserving the union of states formed by the U.S. Constitution, and the stone arch was presented as a symbol of that strength through unity. An arch, built of tapered ringstones standing shoulder to shoulder and locked together by a larger keystone at the apex, gains its strength from every stone, and the failure of any one stone would weaken the whole and cause the arch to fall. In the same way, the union of states could not remain strong if some seceded. This symbolism was embodied in the arches of the Great Stone Viaduct in Bellaire, Ohio, which was planned during the last days of the Civil War and built in the years immediately after it. The first stone of the bridge was placed in the Ohio River piers in 1868, the first arch was erected on Union Street in Bellaire in 1870, and the viaduct was completed in 1871. The viaduct consists of 43 separate stone arches, and each arch contains 37 stones symbolizing the 37 states preserved by the conflict that had just ended. Those arches continue to carry railroad traffic daily because of their strength, reflecting the continued strength and vitality of the United States in unity.