The Silver Bridge Disaster / Silver Bridge Memorial

On December 15, 1967, about one mile downstream from this historic marker, a national tragedy occurred. Forty-six interstate travelers lost their lives when the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River during five o’clock rush hour traffic. The 2,235 foot two-way vehicular bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio via U.S. Route 35. The West Virginia Ohio River Company built the structure in 1928 for $1.2 million. The bridge, unique in its engineering conception, was the first of its design in America and the second in the world. Instead of woven-wire cable, the bridge was suspended on heat-treated eye-bar chains. It was named the “Silver Bridge” because it was the first in the world to be painted with aluminum paint. In 1969, two years later, its replacement, the Silver Memorial Bridge was dedicated.

[Side B]: In memory of the forty-six people who lost their lives in the Silver Bridge Disaster December 15, 1967. OHIO: E. Albert Adler, Jr., Bobby L. Head, Ronnie G. Moore, Kristy Ann Boggs, Forest Raymond Higley, James Otto Pullen, Marjorie S. Boggs, Alva Bernard Lane, Ronald R. Sims, Thomas Allen Cantrell, Thomas Howard Lee, Charles Thomas Smith, Donna Jean Casey, James Richard Maxwell, Oma Frey Smith, Horace Donald Cremeans, Darlene Mayes, Maxine E. Sturgeon, Alonzo Darst, Gerald McManus, James William Hawkins, Frederick Dean Miller. WEST VIRGINIA: Catherine L. Byus, Leo Otto Sanders, Hilda Gertrude Byus, Denzil Ray Taylor, Kimberly Lynn Byus, Glenna Mae Taylor, Melvin A. Cantrell, Maxine Turner, Cecil Counts, Victor William Turner, Alma Louise Duff, Marvin Lendy Wamsley, James Franklin Meadows, Lillian Eleanor Wedge, Nora Isabelle Nibert, James Alfred White, Darius E. Northup. VIRGINIA: Leo Blackman, Robert Eugene Towe. NORTH CAROLINA: Julius Oliver Bennett, Harold David Cundiff, Gene Harold Mabe