AKRON, Ohio - The once glorified high-level bridge between Akron and Cuyahoga Falls is nearing the end of its life.

Once referred to as "Ohio's Niagra," the old bridge doesn't get much attention from drivers any more, but the Summit County Engineer's office thinks it about fairly frequently.

The 69-year-old structure, the highest in the county standing 220-feet above the Cuyahoga River, has allowed us to pass between the two cities, zipping over the gorge below since the 1940s.

And, until the '90s, with its deck made of a steel grid, it even sang to us as we drove.

"'Singing,' or 'crybaby' bridges are rare enough to have their own Wikipedia," said Heidi Swindell, director of administration and government affairs at the Summit County Engineer's office.

It's completely safe, with annual inspections, and even deeper bi-annual inspections, show the bridge is fine, said Joe Paradise, deputy director of engineering services

The steel grate was replaced with asphalt in 1994, and the concrete anchors that once kept the steel from warping at the center are also structurally sound.

"It's probably the most inspected bridge in the county," he said.

At the dedication parade for the high-level bridge opening in 1949, a contest took place to crown a bridge queen. The winner was Nancy Crites, 21, of North Hill.

But keeping the bridge in shape comes at a cost.

Annual maintenance runs about $100,000 per year. To completely repaint and repair the bridge would run about $10 million. That's because the paint likely contains lead, which means removal entails special remediation to keep toxic dust from floating into the valley below, he said. The current asphalt deck, or driving surface, was installed in 1994 and has a 25-30 year lifespan.

"If I'm looking into a crystal ball, I'd say five, six, seven years from now I'm going to need to put a lot of money into this bridge," he said.

Rather than continue making expensive repairs the county wants to replace it.

Estimates to replace the bridge run about $38 million. That number is based on predictions of construction costs 10 years from now. That's because that's how long it will take to line up the support, find the money and complete the engineering work, he said.

So, the county began late last year presenting the case to replace the bridge to officials in Akron, Cuyahoga Falls and Summit County and will soon meet with ODOT, Swindell said.

"Do we rehab or replace? It's like a used car that has a tremendous amount of mileage on it," Paradise said. "We're trying to build consensus."

When the bridge opened in July 1949, it replaced a similar bridge, also called the high-level bridge, that ran over the gorge from North Howard Street to State Road. The old bridge, built in 1914, was torn down in July 1950.

The new bridge was built with the steel to make maintenance easier during Ohio winters.

"We thought we wouldn't have to plow throw salt," Paradise said. "In the /40s, we didn't have a lot of snow removal equipment."

It also was built to accommodate increasing truck traffic, as Akron at the time produced about 50 percent of the rubber in the world and had grown to a population of 245,000. As an industrial center, the city was home to 19 trucking firms that hauled an estimated 76 million pounds of freight per day in and out of Akron, according to a document written for the county engineer in 1995 titled "Akron's Singing Bridge: A history of North Akron's High Level Cantilever bridge."

When the new bridge opened in 1949, Summit County threw a parade, with the Akron Beacon Journal's headline reading, "Yep, Bridge Is Still Ohio's 'Niagara'!"

The newspaper reported an estimated 100,000 people attended the dedication, and many came in the days following the event. Against police directives, people parked on the bridge drove over it slowly to get a look down through the grating, jamming up traffic for miles.

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