{"nrhp_refnum":"05000268","name":"King Street Overhead Bridge","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"King St. Bet. Battleground and Railroad Aves.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Kings Mountain","county":"Cleveland County","state":"NC","lat":35.24085680400003,"lon":-81.34458400599993,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2005-04-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Engineering"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A reinforced concrete Moderne-style rigid-frame vehicular bridge in Kings Mountain, Cleveland County, North Carolina, built 1938-1939. It carries King Street (Business US 74) over the paired Norfolk Southern railroad tracks between Battleground and Railroad avenues.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is locally significant for community planning and development, as it answered a long-standing need for an overhead railroad crossing in a growing textile town. It is statewide significant in engineering as the earliest surviving rigid-frame bridge erected by the State Highway and Public Works Commission, designed in William L. Craven's office with Art Deco-influenced Moderne styling.","narrative":"Carrying King Street over the paired Norfolk Southern tracks at the edge of downtown Kings Mountain, this reinforced concrete bridge was built between October 1938 and April 1939. Its rigid-frame design has an open arched span of about forty-eight feet, concrete abutments with stepped pilasters, and an openwork iron railing painted green. The design came from the Raleigh office of William L. Craven, chief bridge engineer for the State Highway and Public Works Commission, and L. Riddle and Company of Asheville built it. Until a narrow railroad-built bridge appeared in 1919, town streets crossed the tracks at grade, and growing traffic made a better crossing urgent. Town council approved the project in June 1938 as US 74 was being improved. The bridge is regarded as the earliest surviving rigid-frame bridge built by the state highway commission, a type used mostly on the Blue Ridge Parkway elsewhere, and it remains a highly visible local landmark.","period_of_significance":"1938-1939","architect_builder":"Craven, William L.-engineer; L (andon) Riddle & Company - builder; Ballenger Paving Co. - contractor","architectural_style":"Other: rigid-frame bridge (Moderne styling)","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Described as well preserved and intact, still carrying King Street/Business US 74 over the railroad; replacement metal lamp standards are noted.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:57:54.225413-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/78/7196/47719678/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/05000268.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000268/cf1940b727-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/05000268/cf1940b727-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Upstateherd","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Street_Overhead_Bridge.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Upstateherd</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Street_Overhead_Bridge.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47719678","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Street_Overhead_Bridge","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18153169"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/cleveland-county/king-street-overhead-bridge-05000268/"}