King Bridges in New York State (by Allan King Sloan)

The King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio was founded by Zenas King in 1858 and produced bridges of iron and steel all over the county for the next 64 years. After Zenas died in 1892, his sons James and Harry took over the Company’s direction until it ended operations in 1922. Zenas had the foresight to see that there was a nationwide need for iron bridges and that a well organized system of production and delivery was required to supply it. Before the fax and telephone, Zenas had set up a network of sales agents all over the country, armed with impressive catalogues, who would secure orders for bridges, mainly from town and county authorities. From the factory in Cleveland, component parts of the bridge structure were shipped by railroad to the building site where a local crew supervised by King’s agent would undertake the assembly. In this way, by the mid 1880s the Company had produced over 5,000 bridges of all sizes and shapes, well over 200 in New York State alone, which was one of its largest markets. The Company became one of the largest and most active of the iron bridge builders during this period and its exploits in creating the nation’s transportation infrastructure are well known to bridge historians.