The National Road brought a more deliberate form of overland travel across eastern Ohio, carrying stagecoaches, wagons, livestock, and westbound settlers along the first highway built entirely with federal funds. As the road crossed the rolling streams of Muskingum and Guernsey counties, its builders used stone arch bridges that were practical, durable, and suited to the terrain. Among the most distinctive survivors are Ohio’s S bridges, whose curved approaches gave each crossing its name.

The S-shaped plan was not simply ornamental. By curving the roadway on either side of the arch, builders could set the stone span more nearly perpendicular to the stream, reducing the length and complexity of the arch while easing the grade of the approaches. The result was an unusual but efficient crossing: a masonry arch set squarely over the water, with the road bending into and out of it in a graceful, practical line. The form also helped protect the embankment and backfill from erosion, an important concern on a road expected to carry heavy traffic through all seasons.

West of New Concord, the Fox Creek S Bridge remains one of the best-preserved examples. Built in 1828 for the Historic National Road, the stone segmental arch carries the old alignment over Fox Run and retains part of its approaching brick roadway, a detail that reflects the road’s continued importance into the automobile era. Its setting, now bypassed by modern U.S. Route 40, allows the bridge to be read less as an isolated artifact than as a surviving piece of the early roadbed itself.

Farther east in rural Guernsey County, the Peters Creek S Bridge, also known as the Cassell S Bridge, was built in 1828 over Peters Creek. It is smaller than Fox Creek, with a 28-foot main span and a 130-foot overall length, but it remains a complete example of the same National Road design. Bypassed since the 1920s and preserved for pedestrian use, the bridge shows the characteristic S-plan in its approach roadways and wingwalls, with coursed ashlar masonry, parapets, voussoirs, and a keystone still defining the crossing.

The Salt Fork S Bridge east of Old Washington is the most prominent of the three, crossing Salt Fork on the old National Road alignment near Rhinehart Road. Built in 1828, the bridge has a 40-foot stone arch span and a 26-foot roadway, with long curved approaches that give the structure its pronounced S form. It is listed on the National Register and recognized as a National Historic Landmark, and although it has been closed to traffic, it remains open to pedestrians.

Together with Fox Creek and Peters Creek, it preserves a short but important chapter in Ohio’s National Road landscape, where early federal roadbuilding, local stonework, and the demands of terrain met in a form still visible along the old route.