Who is Daniel Carter Byrd? – hassteveclarkresignedyet

As Friday’s investigation fire on and under the Daniel Carter Byrd Bridge Here’s what you need to know about flying over the Ohio River.

When was the bridge built?

The Daniel Carter Byrd Bridge opened in 1977 with the governors of Kentucky and Ohio, astronaut Neil Armstrong and then-U.S. Sen. John Glenn in attendance, the Enquirer reported at the time.

Construction began in the early 1970s. The northern span was completed in August 1974, after which work began on the southern span. The second span was completed about a year later, and the bridge opened to limited traffic near the end of 1976.

What is the length and width of cities?

The Daniel Carter Byrd Bridge is 2,100 feet long and spans eight lanes of I-471 between Cincinnati and Newport, Kentucky. Its width is about 50 feet.

That’s right one of eight bridges crossing the Ohio River in Greater Cincinnati.

Who is the bridge named after?

The bridge is named after one of the founders of the Boy Scouts of America. Bird’s childhood home at 322 E. Third St. in Covington there is National historical monument overlooking the Ohio and Licking rivers.

The Boy Scouts lobbied hard to have the flight named after Byrd, and some paddled down the Ohio and Kentucky rivers to carry petitions to the governor of Frankfort, Kentucky, the Cincinnati Post reported at the time.

Byrd was chosen as the bridge’s namesake in a survey conducted by the Kentucky State Highway Administration. This is the first time the bridge has been named that way, the Enquirer reported.

Byrd was born in Cincinnati in 1850 but grew up in Covington. “An artist of some repute,” according to a 1977 Enquirer story, Byrd moved to New York in 1878 and illustrated at least three books for his friend Mark Twain — A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Tom Sawyer, and Huckleberry Finn”.

Bird died in 1941 in New York.

Why is the bridge called Big Mac?

The bridge is sometimes called the Big Mac because its yellow paint resembles the trademark McDonald’s M. It last received a new yellow coat in 2004.

McDonald’s considered the possibility of opening a floating restaurant at the base of the bridge after the nickname took hold, the Enquirer reported at the time. Last year, a Newport official dismissed the reports as nothing more than rumours.

How much did the bridge cost?

The construction cost was 24 million dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that would be about $126.5 million today.

How many people use the bridge?

The last traffic count on the Daniel Carter Byrd Bridge was in 2023, according to Jake Ryle, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Transportation. The annual average daily traffic (AADT) was then 102,102.