"Lincoln Highway bricks unearthed" is an article by Ed Balint that is featured on the CantonRep.com

Lincoln Highway bricks unearthed
Thursday, August 9, 2007
By ED BALINT
REPOSITORY STAFF WRITER

CANTON Bricks unearthed from the original route of the Lincoln Highway may be the pharaoh’s tomb of road construction.

Dug up as part of ongoing reconstruction work on parts of Tuscarawas Street W, the engineering artifacts are being salvaged and delivered to the Great Platte River Road Archway Museum in Kearney, Neb., where they will be cobbled together to represent a portion of the original Lincoln Highway 16 feet wide and 30 feet long.

The museum is on Interstate 80, a few miles from the Lincoln Highway. Kearney also is at the halfway point of the Lincoln Highway.

“We thought our only option would be to find some kind of a brick company that would work with us, because all the Lincoln bricks are in place (throughout the country) and they’re valuable,” said Ronnie O’Brien, director of operations at the Archway museum.

“We were hoping just to get some original bricks, a few, but the whole thing is going to be original, which is just really amazing,” O’Brien said. “I just never dreamed it would happen.”

Details are being worked out by the city Engineering Department. The museum, featuring an arch spanning I-80, documents the history of transportation in America, from wagon trails to roadways, including a large exhibit paying tribute to the creation of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile route across America.

One issue to be hammered out is whether the bricks will be loaned or donated to the museum. City Council must approve the transaction. The city will not pay any of the cost of shipping the bricks to Nebraska, a task being handled by the Lincoln Highway Association, said Bob Lichty, past president of the national group.

If necessary, “I’ll do it with my own truck to make it happen,” the Canton resident said enthusiastically.

For lovers of the revolutionary road, the first to link the west and east coasts, preserving the bricks means keeping the spirit and significance of the iconic path alive.

“It really makes me proud that we can take the bricks ... to a museum that understands the depth of this history and put them on display,” Lichty said.

The brick pavers, unearthed at Tuscarawas Street and Cleveland Avenue in downtown Canton, will be used to recreate the Lincoln Highway outside the museum. The project may not start until 2013 to coincide with the Lincoln Highway Centennial Celebration, O’Brien said.

‘REALLY COOL STUFF’

Traversing 13 states and covering 3,389 miles, the original Lincoln Highway was dedicated in 1913. Numerous realignments were made over the years as the road improved. Nicknamed the “Main Street Across America,” the highway still meanders through portions of Stark County, including Massillon and Canton and from East Canton to outside Minerva before the road continues to East Liverpool.

At the dawn of the road, the Lincoln Highway connected to an already-existing Tuscarawas Street. Bricks on Tuscarawas predated those on the Lincoln Highway. Bricks were replaced on Tuscarawas (the Lincoln Highway) in 1914, according to records in the engineering department.

Moeglin considers the bricks to be engineering gems.

“I tend to appreciate ... our forefathers that came before us that built these brick streets ... and these cross-country roads,” he said.

Nick Loukas, assistant city engineer, agreed.

“This is some real history and it’s something people can relate to,” he said. “People can see the brick, knowing what it was used for, and that’s really cool.”

CANTON CONNECTION

The Great Platte River Road Archway is a fitting home for the Lincoln bricks in Canton, said O’Brien. Not only is the museum near the Lincoln route, but a metal bridge erected by the Canton Bridge Co. Builders is at the museum site. The 135-foot-long metal bridge, with a wooden floor, traverses a lake.

Spanning the Elkhorn River, the bridge — at one point the longest in Pierce County — was dismantled in the early 1990s and put into storage by the Nebraska Department of Roads due to its good condition and historical value, O’Brien said.

“We’re kind of getting a connection to Canton here,” she said.

Reach Repository writer Ed Balint at (330) 580-8315 or e-mail:

ed.balint@cantonrep.com