STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — The Market Street Bridge still looms over the Ohio River, spanning almost 1,800 feet between downtown Steubenville and the green hills around Weirton, W.Va., on the other side.
But this once majestic steel suspension bridge closed nearly three years ago. And up close, it's easy to see why transportation officials consider it beyond repair.
"You got severe rusting under here," explains Michael Paprocki, a regional transportation planner, as he points to visible holes in the rusted beams under the bridge's deck. "In reality, if it stood long enough, it would probably collapse under its own weight."
Local leaders say it's crucial to replace this bridge to reconnect the communities on either side. But it's also important for another reason: The Ohio River is a major obstacle in the path of the Great American Rail-Trail, an ambitious plan to turn former rail corridors into bike and pedestrian trails that stretch from coast to coast.
Political gridlock in Washington is slowing down bicycle and pedestrian trails. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has made clear that he doesn't want to spend federal dollars on what he calls "DEI bike lanes."
But deep in Appalachia, there is bipartisan support for a multiuse trail that would connect Ohio and West Virginia. Mayors from both sides of the river — and both sides of the political divide — say the trail is vital to the region's economic future.
That's why local movers and shakers gathered a few weeks ago on the Ohio side of the bridge to talk about how to make its proposed replacement a reality.
"This is huge," said Republican Ralph Petrella, the mayor of Steubenville. In an interview with NPR, Petrella said the bridge and trail would help raise the city's profile. "This is a national entity that would help our economic development and continue the momentum we have for revitalization."
The Democratic mayor of nearby Weirton, W.Va., was on hand too. Dean Harris worked at a local steel mill for 48 years. The mill closed in 2024, and Harris says Weirton is trying to attract new employers.
"Weirton is in the process of sort of rebranding ourselves. Steel is what made us, and brought people to our area. But obviously it's time for us to move on from that," Harris said. "We need to look at the future and what's going to be good for future generations. And that's what we're in the process of doing."
Harris says the rail-trail project is part of that effort. Weirton already has a rail-trail that connects to the suburbs of Pittsburgh, about 30 miles east. That helped Weirton attract a battery factory that opened several years ago, Harris said.
Local leaders also hope the rail-trail will encourage more young people to stay. Maura Barnes grew up in Ohio near Steubenville. While most of her friends moved away, Barnes stayed after college to raise her own family in downtown Steubenville.
"My husband and I, somewhat selfishly, really wanted a grocery store in walking distance, not just for ourselves and our family, but all the other people living in the downtown community," she said.
So Barnes and her husband opened the Steubenville Grocery Box with some friends. But she says the closing of the Market Street Bridge hit the neighborhood hard.
"I think a lot of it was almost spiritual," Barnes said. "It's a loss, and it was a blow to the morale of the community."
The Veterans Memorial Bridge, less than 2 miles away, carries highway traffic over the Ohio River. But the Market Street Bridge was the only way for pedestrians or bikes to cross safely, and the only bridge that brought cars directly into downtown.
"A lot of the businesses around us who had been open for years, they saw a pretty notable decrease in foot traffic and car traffic to their businesses when that closed," Barnes said.
There is a plan to replace the Market Street Bridge with another one a few blocks away that would include a dedicated trail for bikes and pedestrians. Congress has appropriated $87 million so far. But that's only a fraction of what the new bridge will actually cost.
"The challenge of crossing a body of water as big as the Ohio River is monumental," said Eric Oberg, the senior director of programs at the Rails To Trails Conservancy, the nonprofit group behind the Great American Rail-Trail.
More than half of the proposed 3,700-mile trail already exists, Oberg said, although there are still some big gaps, including the Ohio River crossing. That's why the group organized the September event in Steubenville.
Local leaders are pushing state and federal lawmakers to find more money for the bridge. And they're focused on the surface transportation reauthorization bill that's currently being negotiated.
But they're doing it at a time when the Trump administration has been hostile to federal spending on bike infrastructure. Oberg says that creates "headwinds" for projects like this, though it doesn't have to stop progress on the replacement bridge.
"It's gonna happen. This is an inevitable project. There's too much support for it. The question is the timeline," Oberg said.
In its heyday, the Market Street Bridge used to carry 40,000 cars a year, said
Michael Paprocki, the regional transportation planner, who grew up in Steubenville. But the cables that anchor the bridge's piers to the ground have failed, leading West Virginia officials to close the bridge in late 2023.
Paprocki now serves as executive director of the Brooke Hancock Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission, a nonprofit working on transportation issues in the Steubenville and Weirton region. He says there's broad support for a new bridge on both sides of the political divide.
"It's not just liberals that ride bikes," he said. "Ohio is an extremely conservative state and a lot of them ride bikes. West Virginia is an extremely red state. And believe me, they love to go out and ride their bikes."
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