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Editor's note:This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah history for KSL.com's Historic section.LEHI — Officials closed the Jordan Narrows (also known as Old Iron) Bridge to vehicle and foot traffic years ago, though it stands just dozens of feet away from the bridge that replaced it and is easily accessible from the nearby Jordan River Parkway Trail.
The bridge has stood in that spot for more than a century and is one of a handful of bridges left in the state with its design. It’s also at the center of a safety debate after a teen dove off it and drowned in the Jordan River below on July 7.
Since then, city officials have raised the argument: Should the bridge be torn down? However, that comes with a separate question regarding state history— is the bridge worth preserving?
Those in the historic community say that’s an option worth considering.
That argument begins with understanding the history of the bridge. It was constructed by the Missouri-based Midland Bridge Company in 1914 and is a Pratt through truss (a truss bridge with a road through it), according to U.S. Library of Congress information.
“It was meant as a second bridge to get over the Jordan River there west of Lehi,” said Roger Roper, Utah State History deputy preservation officer for historic buildings.
It accompanied a bridge on Main Street in Lehi that was the only other bridge crossing the river at the time. The Main Street bridge was removed and replaced in the 1980s.
“It was a pretty important bridge for farmers and other crossers,” Roper said.
Both bridges were similar in design because Pratt through truss bridges were popular at the time. Bridge companies like Midland would manufacture a bridge to fit the needs of an order from a city or state and then ship the bridge to that location and help assemble it, Roper said.
Many of the bridges built in the early 1900s were built in a similar fashion; however, only a handful remained in existence by 2000, including the Jordan Narrows Bridge.
Now the fate of the bridge remains unknown. Lehi Mayor Mark Johnson asked city council members last week to look into tearing down the bridge. Cole Merrill, 16, of Alpine, died after he jumped off it with friends and drowned on July 7, prompting the discussion.
“We're exploring some options of what we can do to make it safer. That is one option that we've discussed, but we haven't made any decisions at this point,” Lehi assistant city administrator Cameron Boyle told KSL on July 15.
There’s also the possibility that the city will place a fence to stop people from jumping off the bridge, which Lehi police said happens often during the summer.
The bridge doesn’t appear to be historically protected and there was some question about who exactly owns the bridge, city officials said.
Roper said the bridge was declared eligible for the National Register for Historic Places when it was removed from traffic operation in the 1990s. However, he said it doesn’t appear it was ever added to the register.
Boyle didn’t immediately respond to calls from KSL regarding if Lehi officials had talked with state historians about the bridge’s history during discussions about the bridge’s future.
Roper argues removing the bridge would damper an understanding of how Utahns lived in the early 20th century, though he acknowledged “saving history can’t always be the overriding factor.”
Roper also said a problematic part of history is that the “most common” buildings or structures of an era are typically erased from history because they are all eventually torn down or removed, while the most unique architecture remains. He said the Jordan Narrows Bridge is “irreplaceable.”
“Sometimes you think, ‘well, if it’s the most common, does that even matter?’ But really, that’s what is hard to keep,” Roper said. He then referenced how the common Utah home styles in the 1850s are unknown because those buildings were lost.
“They were so common nobody thought they were important enough to keep, and that’s true with a lot of the things we deal with building-wise," he said. "The fancy ones get noticed, but the routine ones that really tell you what went on back then.”
