Luten Design bridges

Luten Design bridges (Assortment of 14 colored prints, 7 black and white photographs of reinforced concrete arch bridges. The Luten design images all have a date of July 1919 stamped on the back. Daniel B. Luten (b. 1869 –d. after WWII) was a pioneer of a new way to design bridges emphasizing always concrete arches. In 1900 he put his concepts into practice founding the National Bridge Company which eventually became Luten Engineering Company. The Luten Design was exclusively focused on reinforced concrete arch bridges. The Luten Engineering Company located in Indianapolis, Indiana was the parent company of the various construction branches known as Luten Bridge Company. Branches were known in Knoxville, Tennessee; York, Pennsylvania; Clarksburg and Huntington, West Virginia; Atlanta, Georgia and Palatka, Florida. D. B. Luten held 50 patents for improvements in concrete bridge design. He graduated from University of Michigan with B.S. in Civil Engineering, Class of 1894. It was the business practice of the time at the turn of the 20th century to bring photographic specimens of the company’s work to promote a bridge building contract. Also Luten produced promotional calendars in 1921. It is believed that the colored prints of Luten Design bridges were either promotional specimens or for calendars. Six of the black and white original albumen photographs are the source for some of the color prints. This folder contains all reinforced concrete arch bridges.)