Cemetery Road Bridge
historic bridge in Washington, Illinois
Cemetery Road Bridge is a historic bridge located in Glendale Cemetery in Washington, Illinois. The double stone arch bridge is 27 feet (8.2 m) long and carries Cemetery Road across the south branch of Farm Creek. Engineer Frederick Rickman designed the bridge for the City of Washington in 1893, and it was built the following year by stonemason Jacob Habluetzel. Habluetzel built the bridge from square cut blocks of ashlar stone. The bridge is the best-preserved bridge of its type in Tazewell County and is the only stone arch bridge in the area that is still supported solely by its arches.
The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 20, 1998.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Cemetery Road Bridge” as historic bridge in Washington, Illinois. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as historic bridge in Washington, Illinois. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q22033650. Authority coordinates are 40.697, -89.411. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893 and 1998.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cemetery Road Bridge”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cemetery Road Bridge primary sources, Cemetery Road Bridge archive and Cemetery research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cemetery Road Bridge”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cemetery Road Bridge” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.