MARQUIS BAYOU BRIDGE HAER FL-26 (Macavis Bayou Bridge) HAER FL-26 Spanning Marquis Bayou at US 90 (SR10) East Milton Santa Rosa County Florida PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD SOUTHEAST REGIONAL OFFICE National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 100 Alabama St. NW Atlanta, GA 30303 HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD MARQUIS BAYOU BRIDGE (Macavis Bayou Bridge) HAER No. FL-26 Location: Spanning Marquis Bayou at US 90 (State Road [SR] 10) Milton Vicinity, Santa Rosa County, Florida. latitude: 30.627329, Marquis Bayou Bridge is located at latitude: - 87.0289, longitude, longitude: -87.029862, 30.2944. The coordinate represents the center of the bridge. This obtained from Google coordinate was obtained on October 1, 2012, by plotting its location on the Earth 1:24000 Milton North, FL USGS Topographic Quadrangle Map. The accuracy of the coordinate is +/- 12 meters. The coordinate’s datum is North American Datum 1983. The Marquis Bayou Bridge location has no restriction on its release to the public. Present Owner/ Occupant: Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) Present Use: Vehicular transport To be replaced with a new bridge in 2013-14 Significance: This bridge was part of a larger project that included creating a grade separated crossing for SR 1 at the Louisville & Nashville (L & N) Railroad east of Milton, relocating a stretch of SR 1 to eliminate dangerous driving conditions, and constructing a new bridge spanning the bayou. Federal funds, partially related to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), were used. In 2009, the Marquis Bayou Bridge was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under Criteria A and C. For Criterion A, the construction of this bridge was part of an inter-related road improvement project that was constructed utilizing federal funds during the Great Depression. For Criterion C, the bridge embodies the distinctive characteristics of the reinforced concrete T-beam bridge that was common during the early twentieth century through the 1960s. This bridge has retained much of its historic integrity, including the typical slotted railing. Historian: Rebecca Spain Schwarz, AIA Atkins, Tampa, Florida, December 2012 Project Information: This document was prepared by Atkins for FDOT, District Three, to fulfill Stipulation II in the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the bridge MARQUIS BAYOU BRIDGE (Macavis Bayou Bridge) HAER No. FL-26 (Page 2) replacement project. Marquis Bayou Bridge was determined structurally deficient and functionally obsolete and will be replaced with a new bridge on existing alignment. Historical research included in this documentation was condensed from the cultural resource assessment survey prepared by Atkins staff Philip Causey and Sharyn Thompson. Original plans provided on microfilm by FDOT were photographed by Penny Rogo Bailes (subcontractor from MamaRazzi Foto). Penny Rogo Bailes also took the large format photographs, with the assistance of Rebecca Spain Schwarz. MARQUIS BAYOU BRIDGE (Macavis Bayou Bridge) HAER No. FL-26 (Page 3) Part I. Historical Information A. Physical History: 1. Date(s) of Construction: 1936-37 2. Architect/Engineer: Florida State Road Department 3. Builder/Contractor(s)/Supplier: Tidewater Construction Company (bridge construction); George D. Auchter Construction Company (earthwork and roadway); and Duval Engineering and Construction Co. (dredge and fill) 4. Original plans and construction: The Marquis Bayou Bridge is identified as Bridge No. 5800130 by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and has been recorded in the Florida Master Site File (FMSF) as 8SR1930. It has recently also been called the Macavis Bayou Bridge by FDOT. This bridge carries US 90 (State Road [SR] 10) over the Marquis (also known as Macavis) Bayou, approximately one half mile east of the City of Milton and just east of the Blackwater River, in Santa Rosa County, Florida. (See Figures 1 and 2.) It is a two-lane reinforced concrete T-beam fixed span bridge that was constructed in 1936-37. This bridge was part of a larger project that included creating a grade separated crossing for SR 1 at the Louisville & Nashville (L & N) Railroad east of Milton, relocating a stretch of approximately two miles of SR 1 to eliminate dangerous driving conditions, and thus requiring a new bridge spanning the bayou. The bridge was built, in part, with local labor funded through a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program; however, the bridge was designed by the Florida State Road Department, not by WPA. Plans were prepared for the project in June 1935 (see Figures 3 to 7 for copies of original plans). Construction began in March 1936, and the bridge opened to traffic in May 1937. The steel reinforced concrete T-beam bridge has eight spans, with a total of 264 feet in length. The bridge is curved slightly so the joints between each span are at an angle to the roadway. A sidewalk runs along the northern side of the roadway, separated from the travel lane by a low concrete curb. The cast concrete railing running along both sides of the bridge has a “pierced” or “slotted” pattern of vertical, oval-shaped openings. This design was influenced by the art nouveau/art deco styles popular following the turn-of- the-twentieth century and is typical of architectural detail applied to reinforced concrete bridges in Florida during the 1920s-30s. The substructure of the bridge includes sixty 18- inch square reinforced concrete pilings; six pilings are aligned for each bent. The Tidewater Construction Company of Norfolk, Virginia, was the contractor for construction of both the railroad overpass and the Marquis Bayou Bridge. The George D. Auchter Construction Company of Jacksonville, Florida, was the contractor responsible for the earth work and fill for the Marquis Bayou Bridge and for construction of relocated SR 1. The Duval Engineering and Construction Company, a sub-contractor to the Auchter Company, did much of the extensive dredge and fill operation. MARQUIS BAYOU BRIDGE (Macavis Bayou Bridge) HAER No. FL-26 (Page 4) B. Historical Context: The following is a brief historic contextual description condensed from the 2009 CRAS.1 Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821 but was not granted statehood until 1845. The town of Milton, located northeast of Pensacola in the Florida panhandle, was founded in 1825 as a trading post along the Blackwater River. For many decades it was accessible only by stagecoach or riverboat. Santa Rosa County was established in 1842, making it the 21st county in Florida. Milton become the county seat in 1843 and was incorporated in 1844. Milton developed as an agricultural and lumbering center in the territorial period. By the 1850s, it was the county seat of the most industrialized county in Florida. Its lumber, bricks and ships made enormous contributions to the growth of Florida. During the Civil War, Milton was a shipping point for cotton and wood. After the Civil War, post war growth was rapid and centered on the timber and naval stores industry. The L&N Railroad extended their line into Florida in the early 1880s. A 170-mile link from Pensacola to Chattahoochee, Florida, running through Milton, was completed in 1883 and allowed the timber industry to flourish in north Florida. In the antebellum period, five shipyards, two brickyards and several sawmills operated in the vicinity of Milton. When the timber resources became depleted around 1900, interests turned to farming. The Great Depression and the depletion of timber resources caused the slow decline of this industry in the twentieth century. However, since that period reforestation has been practiced2. Agriculture, particularly cotton and soybeans, has been the major economic activity of Santa Rosa County since that time. It has remained rural in nature and sparsely settled. A bridge was built across the Blackwater River in the early 1900s at the foot of Grace Street, replacing the ferry which operated from the end of Berryhill Road for over 70 years. Programs sponsored by the federal government during the Great Depression were vital to the survival of Milton and Santa Rosa County. Road projects, such as the construction of the railroad overpass and the Marquis Bayou Bridge, employed skilled and unskilled laborers from Milton and Santa Rosa County, providing a much needed economic boost to the local economy. As early as 1933 a delegation of Santa Rosa County politicians along with Congressman Millard Caldwell made several budget requests to the Florida Road Department. Among the requests was funding for the construction of an overpass over the L&N Railroad track, the relocation of SR 1 and the construction of a bridge over Marquis Bayou. In the summer of 1933, $5,231,834 of federal funds was made available for public construction projects in Florida. These projects were vitally important to the economic and business enterprises of Milton, but other federally funded, non-road projects contributed equally to the economic growth of the region. 1 Phillip D. Causey and Sharyn Thompson, A Cultural Resources Assessment Survey of the Macavis Bayou Bridge Replacement, Santa Rosa County, Florida, Atkins North America, Inc., Tallahassee, Florida, 2009, Ms. On file, Florida Division of Historical Resources, Florida Master Site File, Tallahassee, Florida. 2 William Bean, “Santa Rosa County,” Guide to Florida’s Historic Architecture, edited by Mary Nell Reeves and Diane D. Greer (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1989), 8-9. MARQUIS BAYOU BRIDGE (Macavis Bayou Bridge) HAER No. FL-26 (Page 5) As World War II approached, harvestable trees were disappearing and the lumber industry began to decline. The war created a need for naval aviators and the United States Navy built Naval Air Station Whiting Field north of Milton in 1943. Over time Whiting Field and its associated outlying fields became the preeminent training facility for naval aviators. The opening of bases like Whiting Field prompted a need for housing for the civilian and military personnel stationed there3.