Eden Park, Melan Arch Bridge, Walnut Hills, Cincinnati, Ohio

Built in 1895 at a cost of $7130.00 the Melan Arch Bridge is the first concrete arch bridge in Ohio and the oldest concrete span in Cincinnati still serving it’s original purpose. The bridge is 117 feet long and spans Eden Park Drive.

Austrian engineer Josef Melan developed a new system of concrete reinforcement for bridge construction in the early 1890s. A fellow Austrian, Fritz von Emperger, introduced the system in the United States, and obtained a patent for it in 1893. The bridge used steel reinforcing beams as opposed to the later use of reinforcing bars in more modern bridges which makes this one of the more rarer bridges in the country.

The bridge was waterproofed in 1932 and remodeled in 1949 when the original railings were removed.

A plaque honoring the span was installed by the Cincinnati Chapter of American Institute of Architects, the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers and the Portland Cement Corporation in 1966. The Stone eagles along Eden Drive came from the Richardson Chamber of Commerce building in downtown Cincinnati after it was destroyed in a fire in 1911.