West Jefferson Avenue/Rouge River Bridge

The West Jefferson Bridge is eligible for the National Register under Criterion C as a significant monument to early twentieth-century engineering. It is also eligible under Criterion A as a noteworthy product of the Wayne County Road Commission. The city of Detroit was responsible for maintaining bridges over the Rouge River at West Jefferson Avenue and West Fort Street. By the late 1910s, new bridges were urgently needed for both crossings, which were served by narrow swing bridges. The swing spans also interfered with the federal government's plans to dredge a deep channel in the river so that Great Lakes freighters could reach the Ford Motor Company's expanding Rouge plant and other factories upstream. The city and county, agreed that the county could better oversee the construction, but legal restrictions prohibited county involvement until a change in state legislation in 1919. By September 1920, plans were drawn up for a 'Chicago city type of single trunnion, double-leaf bascule bridge' for each crossing, with a combined cost estimated at $2 million. A plate on the West Jefferson Bridge credits Hugh E. Young as designing engineer and Lewis M. Gram as consulting engineer; Harry A. Shuptrine was chief bridge engineer for the county road commission. Gram, who had worked for a number of bridge and engineering companies, joined the faculty of the University of Michigan's civil engineering department in 1912 and was involved with the design and construction of the Belle Isle Bridge in Detroit in the late 1910s.

The West Jefferson Bridge, a double-leaf steel trunnion bascule structure over the Rouge River is located about 5 miles southwest of the heart of downtown Detroit. The river forms the northeast border of the industrial community of River Rouge, which was organized as a village in 1899 and as a city in 1921. To the east, the river empties into the Detroit River through a deepwater canal dredged by Henry Ford to provide access to his Rouge River plant. The canal created Zug Island, a heavy industry zone. The centerline of the bridge is oriented northeast-southwest. The trunnions are separated by 183 feet. Each 91-foot leaf of the bascule consists of a pair of substantial riveted steel truss webs which extend above the bridge deck. The trusses contain the following members: upper chord: built-up channels with X-lacing and plates; lower chord: built-up channels with X-lacing; verticals: built-up channels with X-lacing, paired angles with X-lacing; diagonals: paired angles with X-lacing, and a variety of built-up beams; bottom lateral: perforated I-beams. The 46-foot-wide steel-mesh roadway runs between the webs. The 70-foot-wide deck features 8.5-feet-wide sidewalks which extend outside the webs, supported by metal brackets. Replacement railings consist of four pipes. Two-story stone operators' houses are at the northwest and southeast ends of the bridge. Each hold stairways which descend to mechanical rooms below the concrete-girder approach spans. The 248-foot structure rests on dressed, coursed stone abutments. During a renovation undertaken in 1981 funded by the state's Critical Bridge Replacement Program, the bridge's concrete counterweights were removed, the original railing was removed, steel guard rails were added, floor beams were repaired, and stringers and steel deck grating were replaced. Reinforcing plates were apparently added to the top and bottom chords of the trusses. A new General Electric electrical panel was installed.