The double-decked Sherman Minton Bridge was constructed to carry interstate I-64 traffic between Kentucky and Indiana. Designed by the Louisville firm of Hazelet & Erdal, which later designed the John F. Kennedy Memorial Bridge linking Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeffersonville, Indiana, farther east, it was completed in 1962 at a cost of $14.8 million. The bridge is 2,053 feet long and is a two-span, steel through-arch bridge. Sherman Minton, for whom it is named, practiced law in New Albany before becoming a US Senator and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, where he served at the time of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. It was named the most beautiful long-span bridge of 1961 by the American Institute of Steel Construction, and 8,000 tons of steel were used by the 75 ironworkers who constructed its superstructure.

Photo: Unknown via National Archives (PD)

Photo: cmh2315fl via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

New Albany, Indiana · USA