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MHT HO-7 8 Form 10-300 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STATE: j^ (July 1969) NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Maryland COUNTY: 7" NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES Howard ^ INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM FOR NPS USE ONLY ENTRY NJJMBER ^-rCrWTE^--^. (Type all entries — complete applicable sections) {Ju«fil^T 1i OK TQ77KJ/C. x -'\-' \ °5--.-.U.J,.' it I < f-j} .-.••!•••• •••••Xk'V-iXv^'f^'X-X .yxoi-X-X-Xv^X'X-XOX-XvX-X'X-X'XvXv.'.-X'XvX-.'.-. !xj:-\x-xjW:jk'M:P''"-':':'; ':': ':''':''!^^^ 'wiiiiiijiii^^ %\ COMMON: ~o\ H- Bollman Truss i'jj r«oj^ AND/OR HISTORIC: ?2 ^ Bollman Railroad Truss t. fi&'OA," * • STREET AND NUMBER: ^'\. / German Road and Savage Road, Little Patuxent River ^V/pTTT?,^ CITY OR TOWN: Savage STA TE CODE COL NTY: CODE Maryland 24 Howard 027 gii;iliilliiillliill:ii^lilll!ill;;ll CATEGORY STATUS ACCESS.BLE OWNERSHIP (Check One) TO THE PUBLIC n District Q Building J£] Public Public Acquisition: D Occupied Yes: i —, .. , | | Restricted 9 CD S' te 6S Structure CD Private CD In Process | _| Unoccupied — ' id«.red i —i r. 53 Unrestricted CD Object CD Both CD Being Cons laerea gg Preservation work "" h- in progress ' — ' PRESENT USE (Check One or More as Appropriate) =J CD Agricultural CD Government Jjijj] Park CD Transportation CD Comments CD Commercial CD Industrial Q Private Residence | | Other (Sper.ify) CD Educational CD Military Q Religious CD Entertainment CD Museum | | Scientific ..... 2 OWNER'S NAME: Ul County Executive, Howard County , Howard County Courthouse [I STREET AND NUMBER: n UJ 21043 Court Place CITY OR TOWN: STATE: CODE Cu Ellicott City Maryland 24 i COURTHOUSE, REGISTRY OF DEEDS, ETC: COUNTY: Howard County Courthouse Howarc STREET AND NUMBER: 21043 Court Place >-u CITY OR TOWN: STATE CODE i i Ellicott City Maryland 24 i ... j Tl TUE OF SURVEY: ENTR Maryland Register of historic sites 0 and landmarks "-t-0 Tl O NUMBERt DATE OF SURVEY: 1970 l~~l Federal j £] State | | County ( | Local 73 DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS: Z CO TJ Maryland Historical Trust !o C STREET AND NUMBER: m 94 College Avenue O r~z CITY OR TOWN: STATE: CODE Annapolis Maryland 24 DATE MHT HO-7 8 (Check One) O Excellent JXl Good [~] Fair Q Deteriorated j 1 Ruins [~1 Unexposed CONDITION (Check One) (Check One) n Altered Jg] Unaltered v) Moved \ | Original Site DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL, (if known) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE On an abandoned Baltimore and Ohio Railroad spur in the village of Savage, Maryland, approximately three miles northeast of Laurel, halfway between Washington and Baltimore, is one of America's more significant civil engineering relics. This two-span iron truss bridge is tHe sole surviving example of a type that played a critical role in railroad develop ment, a story that has characteristically been dominated by the parallel progress of the locomotive. The 1&5Q structure, patented in 1852, was- a. small span of seventy-six feet and to some extent experimental. The design was undoubtedly inspired by the classical method of strengthening a wood beam by the addition of an iron truss rod below. The Bollman truss was invariably of composite construction: those members subjected to tensile stresses were of wrought iron; those in compression were of cheaper rn cast iron. rn George K. Fitch in the Baltimore Engineer says: z The idea of an all iron bridge was not t/» original with Bollman. Such bridges were fairly common in England, the material at first being H cast iron. The development of wrought iron and 7Q its use in combination with cast iron made a a satisfactory structure but the idea failed to n interest American designers principally because H of the abundance of timber and the difficulty of obtaining sufficient quantities of usable iron. By 1850, manufacturing of iron products in America had overcome any shortage. The truss designed by Bollman was not in a true sense a truss. Rather it partook of the nature of a suspension bridge. It has been said that Latrobe, junder whom Bollman worked, was skeptical of the prevalent trussing system in which the separate panel loads were accumulative ly carried back to the end posts. In the Bollman design each panel load was individually carried back to the end of the bridge. Bollman adopted the familiar "king post" method of strengthening a beam by placing a short post underneath the beam at the center 0 point and supporting the bottom end of the post ^ by diagonal tension rods attached to the ends A of the beam. This is exactly what Bollman did (SEE CONTINUATION SHEET)_______ MET HO-7 8 M: hfr&ii^vA'i •pi.h'h.i^-iM^M^Mh^.-M.VM PE"RIQD\(Cneck One or More as Appropriate) V / >\ Q ^-PQ Pre-Columbian j Q 16th Century O 18th Century 20th Century o' \-f\l 15th Century Q 17th Century (25 19th Century SPECIFIC DJATE(S) (If Applicable and Known) 1869 IGNI Fl C AN C E (Check One or More as Appropriate) r iginol I | Education Q Political II Urban Planning I | Prehistoric (^ Engineering n Religion/Phi (X| Other (Specify,) [~~1 Historic [ | Industry losophy Bridge construction | | Agriculture [ | Invention I | Science Iron technology [~1 Architecture I| Landscape [~| Sculpture D Art Architecture I | Social/Human [ | Commerce I | Literature itarian [ | Communications Q Military Q Theater [ | Conservation Q Music JXJ Transportation The Bollman bridge at Savage, Maryland, is the sole surviving BoJLlman truss in the United States, and possibly in the world. z The system of bridge trussing invented by the Baltimore o engineer Wendil Bollman (1814-1884) was the first to be used with consistency on an American railroad in which all of the principal structural members were of iron. u The direct and intimate relationship of this bridge to two present National Historic Landmarks should be noted. The Thomas Viaduct, Howard and Baltimore Counties, and the Baltimore and Ohio Transportation Museum, Baltimore City, have been so designated as fitting recognition of the vital role played by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in America's internal communication and transportation. The Bollman truss, it can be fairly stated, played as vital a ULJ role in the railroad's development as did any other single LJ aspect of its early plant. The Bollman truss bridge at Savage is the only structure in Maryland designated as a National Historic CiyiJ_,En.gineering Landmark (1966) by the American Society orCivil Engineers. Bollman, serving under Benjamin H. Latrobe as "Master of Road" for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, gave form to the concept with what he termed a "suspension" truss. From its inception, as the first commercially organized railroad in the United States, the Baltimore and Ohio was a pioneer venture. Its innovations in railway construction, motive power and.structural engineering, influenced and "Ted the thinking of railroads around the world. No single departure was more crucial than the decision of Benjamin H. Latrobe, the Railroad's Chief Engineer, in about 1848, to substitute iron for timber in all major bridges along the line, both old and new, to eliminate fire hazard^ rot and the other defects and hazards inherent in timber construction. (SEE CONTINUATION SHEET) MHT HO-7 8 Recorders: Michael Bourne, Maryland Historical Trust, Annapolis, Maryland, 1968; Nancy Miller, Historian, Maryland Historical Trust, 1969. Biographical Cyclopedia of Representative Men of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Baltimore: National Biographical Publishing, 1879. (SEE CONTINUATION SHEET) LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE COORDINATES DEFINING A RECTANGLE LOCATING THE PROPERTY C 1 DEFINING THE CENTER POINT OF A PROPERTY , OF LESS THAN TEN ACRES CORNER LATITUDE LONGITUDE LATITUDE LONGITUDE Degrees Minutes Seconds Degrees Minutes Seconds Degrees Minutes Seconds Degrees Minutes Seconds NW o o NE ° ° 39 06 55.5" 76 ° 49 ' 31.0 SE ° o , . C\fJ O t m Oil* APPROXIMATE ACREAGE OF NOMINATED PROPERTY: 4 3 rrfic. ( ^ ^ n/^m TTVTTT TV rn T^AT ILIST ALL STATES AND COUNTIES FOR PROPERTIES OVERLAPPING STATE OJ^^^XMJN-T^BOUN D A Rl ES <-, ^p-p,^ ^ STATE: CODE COUNTY /Z\\\\--"~J, ! ) "N CODE rn / > VV '' -"*• / /N i m //xV " <>J " •• " /- Ci\\ • " STATE: CODE COUNTY/O/ CT~1 ^^^ "'•' - - CODE o/**6'.. ^— • — -1 ^T*» -- : •=' «K\ J 21 STATE: CODE C 0 U N T VXCT/i i * (•u -i•> ^?1 » ~(--' ;~r.^ !••• •• " . CODE \ -~-\ L^_, r~ O CO \ ^\ Cd~ Q < IJ.J STATE: CODE COUNT^: ^:' \ U £^ UC './. CODE H ^. ; ..-% NAME AND TITLE: •' * Mrs. Preston Parish, Keeper of the Marvland Jtegi st^r- ORGANIZATION " DATE Maryland Historical Trust Dec. 22, 1971 STREET AND NUMBER: O 94 College Avenue Z CITY OR TOWN: STATE CODE Annapolis Maryland 24 jlpililltlil^^ As the designated State Liaison Officer for the Na I hereby certify that this property is included in the tional Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 89-665), I hereby nominate this property for inclusion National Register. in the National Register and certify that it has been j evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the National Park Service. The recommended Ofti(Mi^U±fi^ Chief, Off/fee of Archeology and/Historic Preservation level of significance of this nomination is: National Q State 58 Local Q U Date /V'^/71- Name 0^0/^(00 R* dW^ ' ° ATTEST: ^^*>^L Orlando Ridout IV Title State Liaison Officer for Maryland ^tLrS? fi-fj Date December 23, 1971 Date/ / '*f/^/r± MHT HO-7 8 rm 10-300a ly 1969) Maryland NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES COUNTY INVENTORY - NOMINATION FORM Howard FOR NFS USE ONLY ENTRY NUMBER (Continuation Sheet) dumber all ontrieaff Bollman Truss #6. REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS continued National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark 1966 Federal American Society of Civil Engineers 345 E.