John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge — Attraction in Covington

The Roebling Suspension Bridge, or if you want to sound like a local, just call it the Suspension Bridge. If I had to pick a bridge that was my absolute favorite, this one would be it. Not just because it was built in 1866, as others have mentioned, and it's as beautiful and functional today as it was then. To me, this is the bridge that fathers walk over with their sons taking them to a ballgame. You can almost always find free parking in Covington even on gameday, so the obvious thing to do is to park on the Kentucky side and walk across the suspension bridge to the ballpark rather than paying however much to park closer to the stadium. As a child, this taught me an important lesson: Not all things in life are better because you spent money on them. Sure, parking for free is something that "cheap" dads do, but the money saved can be used to buy a bag of peanuts for the game from a vendor on the bridge, which is much cheaper than the ones sold at the stadium. Calling it "cheap" doesn't account for the beautiful vistas that dad and child share while walking the historic bridge, the chance to point out landmarks and buildings to the child, who will carry those memories with him forever, and be reminded every time he sees the bridge of the childish wonder of dropping a peanut from the upper deck just to watch it fall into the river, a simple act which gives him the power to have an effect, however small, on a dark and untouchable space, and in doing so quietly places himself...

A very interesting bridge to look at. There are 5 bridges that all converge over the Ohio River and cross from Kentucky into Cincinnati. The Roebling Bridge built in the 1860s, is the one that you will pause and study. It is archetecually majestic and visually pleasing. It is interesting in it's design and build.

I found myself amazed. I wondered how mankind could build such a thing before modern power tools, manlifts, cranes, gasoline engines, electricity, and CAD engineering programs. Someone had to visualize and figure this all out in their head.

The impact and what this bridge must of ment to the citizens of Covington and Cincinnati must have been enormous at that time. I imagine todays analogy would be the U.S. Interstate road system in the '50s & '60s or the development of the intetnet in the '80s & '90s would be similarly life changing. Each free and opening up a brand new world to the everyday common man in it's time.

John A. Roebling Company designed and built this and then went on and built the world famous Brooklyn Bridge in NY. There would not be a Brooklyn Bridge if there wasn't this bridge first. Learn more on youtube. Search John A Roebling...

Joining the cities of Covington Kentucky with Cincinnati Ohio, the Roebling bridge opened in 1866 and at the time was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Designed by John A. Roebling, he went on to build the famous Brooklyn Bridge in 1883 and the Ojuela Bridge in Durango in 1898.

It did serve streetcars at one time and would have been capable of supporting the subway but the city never completed that project. Today, it has pedestrian traffic that is much used for parking in Kentucky and walking to sporting events in Cincinnati and it has an 11 ton weight limit for vehicles.

The bridge is active in 2023 having just finished a rehabilitation project in 2021 and I hope to see many more years of this stunning and beautiful bridge. It is especially photogenic at night. There is no toll for crossing the Ohio River here in...