Lewis Bridge – NHR

In 1922 Keya Paha County Commissioners and representatives from Tripp County, South Dakota, awarded a
contract to the Standard Bridge Company to erect a two-span pony truss structure, supported by a steel pile
bent substructure. The Omaha-based bridge firm completed the Lewis Bridge near Springview by November
1922. The structure featured typical state-standard Pratt trusses, but onto these the bridge company overlaid a
transverse joist girder floor system, a hallmark configuration of the Standard Bridge Company. A handful of
these hybrid bridges remain in use today on Nebraska’s secondary roads. The Lewis Bridge is technologically
significant as one of the best preserved and thoroughly documented among these, and is thus listed on the National Register of Historic Places.