{"nrhp_refnum":"76001488","name":"Black River Viaduct, Baltimore And Ohio Railroad","other_names":[],"category":"structure","location":{"address":"1 mi. W of Lodi off OH 421","address_restricted":false,"city":"Lodi","county":"Medina County","state":"OH","lat":41.02737476300007,"lon":-82.04114918299996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-05-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Engineering","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A large masonry arch railroad viaduct carrying the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad over the West Fork of the Black River about one mile west of Lodi, Medina County, Ohio, built 1890-1892.","why_significant":"The nomination calls it a monumental masonry civil engineering work whose simple Roman form reflects the skill of nineteenth-century American builders. It carries a vital link on the Baltimore and Ohio main line connecting Chicago with the East. Its stone construction, rather than fabricated steel, is compared with the Brandywine Viaduct at Wilmington, Delaware.","narrative":"Near Lodi in Medina County, Ohio, a three-arch stone viaduct carries Baltimore and Ohio Railroad tracks over the West Fork of the Black River. Built between 1890 and 1892, it has semicircular arches about fifty feet across, with evenly sized voussoirs and no emphasized keystones. The walls are regular horizontal courses of slightly rusticated sandstone. The center arch crosses the stream on short vertical piers, while the two end arches spring from the banks and span unpaved paths. A slightly projecting sill course at the top is the only real ornament. The viaduct belongs to the Akron division, a new stretch of line built from Akron to Chicago Junction (Willard, Ohio) as part of the railroad's direct route to Chicago, completed by 1893. The nomination values it as a monumental masonry engineering work whose plain Roman form shows nineteenth-century building skill, and as a link on the main line between Chicago and the East. The form lists it as unaltered and still in service.","period_of_significance":"1890-1892","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Vernacular","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in use as part of the railroad main line; the form marks it unaltered and occupied.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.087137-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/76001488.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001488/f7361bc25c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76001488/f7361bc25c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Kevin V. Dudley","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NRHP-Black_River_Viaduct.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Kevin V. Dudley</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:NRHP-Black_River_Viaduct.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71990237","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138569952"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/medina-county/black-river-viaduct-baltimore-and-ohio-railroad-76001488/"}