Jennifer Eastin, member April 2003-present
David Erickson, founding member November 2000-present
Wes Kinsler, founding member November 2000-present
Ken Parker, member Febuary 2004-present
Marita Sánchez, member, May 2001-present
Kyle Wright, member, March 2004-present
The Oklahoma highways group is a collection of persons interested in bridges and seeing Oklahoma who venture out into Oklahoma's wide open country side on select weekends to photograph older bridges and see other sites that the state has to offer
All the photographs you see here are original photos taken on 35mm Fuji 400 film. After developing, photos are digitized via a flatbed scanner. The original negatives and prints are property of W A Kinsler. Digital images copyright Oklahoma Highways Group. Images may be used with permission.
For many of the bridges you see on this website are many more photographs than what we actually publish online. If you are looking for more photos of a particular bridge, or photographs of construction details, etc, please contact Wes Kinsler via e-mail at: wkinsler@wkinsler.com.
Thank you for visiting Oklahoma Bridges!!!
How I classify the bridges
I thought I would add this note in case anyone wonders how I made the determination to label a bridge in a given way. First, truss types; a Parker is a Pratt truss, pony, or through, with a polygonal top chord. If a Parker truss has six or more panels, and only five slopes in the upper chord, I call it a Camelback. I object to calling a five-paneled Parker truss a camelback, because it very obviously cannot be configured for anything other than five slopes. Bridges with more than five panels can be made either or, thus making a distinction between the two unique.
K-trusses and K-Parker trusses. If their be an odd number of panels and the center panel has an X, I call it a K-truss. Without subdividing the middle panel, there is no real good way to arrange it without using an X (strut or no strut). However, if the number of panels be even, then I look at the middle panels to determine the difference. The 8-panel design is a good way to explain this. Most of these have the K-configuration in the middle two panels. A few early examples, however, still use the X in the middle two panels (usually with the strut). The early version with the X in the middle panels would be a K-Parker truss, the latter with the K in the middle panels would be a K-truss.
Combination spans. I label any mixing of different style trusses a combination bridge. It could be a through span and a pony, or a through span of one type or length, with another through span of different type or length. I also look at the approaches. If the deck of the approaches are concrete, then it is a combination span. If the deck is wood, then I consider it a single span.