200th Year Anniversary Y-Bridge

Zanesville celebrated the birthday of a monumental landmark today.

The Y-Bridge in downtown Zanesville had it’s 200th birthday celebration this afternoon at the Muskingum County welcome center. Community development director Jay Bennett says the main focus of today’s celebration is understanding the history and significance of the Y-Bridge.

"Today is just about, kind of displaying some of the artifacts and then also having a presentation where some of the dignitaries officials get to do proclamations, but the center piece of it certainly is the pioneer historical society of Muskingum County’s presentation."

The stone academy historic site and museum director Jim Geyer says the Y-Bridge has gone through some drastic changes since the original bridge was built in 1814.

"There have been 5 Y-Bridges on the same site. The first Y-Bridge actually opened 200 years ago today, only lasted 4 years, wasn’t very well built. The second Y-Bridge wasn’t well built, it was a partially covered bridge. The third Y-Bridge was fully covered, it opened in 1832 and was closed in 1900. The fourth Y-Bridge was made of concrete, steel reinforced concrete."

The fifth bridge was built in 1984 and is the iconic bridge that you can see today.