Luten Bridge Company

Luten Bridge Company and variations such as Luten Engineering Company was the name of a number of different bridge building companies in the United States during the early- to mid-20th century. Each had rights to build concrete Luten arch bridges, according to the patented designs of Daniel B. Luten, of Indianapolis.[1]:3

One that distributed a brochure in 1921 and that was prolific in Tennessee had offices in York, Pennsylvania, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, in Huntington, West Virginia, in Atlanta, Georgia, and in Palatka, Florida. It built the seven span Harriman Bridge in Tennessee.[2]:2 The Luten Bridge Company is documented to have built 71 bridges in Tennessee.[2]:72 of pdf, 186 of book

The Luten Engineering Company was Daniel Luten's own firm during a certain period.[2]

Some of these firms also built other bridge designs.

Works
Moores Creek Bridge, Florida, built 1925

Works of the various firms include:

Luten Bridge Co. vs. Rockingham County

One of the firms was based in Knoxville, Tennessee and was party to a famously cited case in the history of American contract law. The firm built Luten arch and other types of bridges. The Tennessee Luten Bridge Company was a party in the landmark 1929 court case, Luten Bridge Co. vs. Rockingham County.[4] Rockingham County, North Carolina commissioned a bridge over the Dan River on January 1924 but canceled it in late February. Luten carried on regardless, and later sued the county for the full cost of construction. On appeal, the court ruled in favor of the county, stating that it was the contractor's responsibility to limit costs after a contract has been canceled. The opinion of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit written by judge John J. Parker defined the Duty to Mitigate, essentially establishing that a contractor has a duty to limit costs after its contract has been terminated. The case has been cited in American law school casebooks and law journals.[5][6]

  • The King of Rockingham County and the Original Bridge to Nowhere

References
  1. Clayton B. Fraser (October 31, 2004). "State of Arizona Historic Bridge Inventory" (PDF).
  2. "Tennessee Department of Transportation Chapter 3: Bridge Companies" (PDF).
  3. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  4. Rockingham County v. Luten Bridge Co., 35 F. 2d 301 - Circuit Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit 1929, published opinion
  5. Barak Richman, The King of Rockingham County and the Original Bridge to Nowhere in Contracts Stories (Foundation Press, 2007)
  6. Fish, Peter G, Crossing Judge Parker's 'Luten Bridge': etc. North Carolina Law Review, vol. 84, pp. 1913-1926, publ. 2006
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