For over 175 years, the Wheeling Suspension Bridge has been an iconic symbol of the city and its crucial place in the history of the Ohio Valley and the greater United States. It carried Wheeling through the transition from wagons and horses to automobiles to bicycles. Even though it is hard to imagine Wheeling without the Suspension Bridge, the city came very close to losing the structure within its first few years!
The Fight for a Bridge
To many at its completion in 1849, Wheeling’s new suspension bridge signified progress. As people pushed further west, transportation infrastructure raced to keep up and both private and public money contributed to roads, bridges, railroads, and more. Cities throughout the region jockeyed and competed for these new developments. Being located on a transportation route or hosting a railroad stop meant more people, commerce, and growth for the city—if your city was bypassed, it was hard to compete. Water transportation had been a main way of transporting goods and people up and down the Ohio Valley, but the bridge facilitated an alternate route across land, allowing Wheeling to compete as an integral city between the East and West.
People in Wheeling had been trying to build a bridge across the Ohio River for decades. In 1816—as construction of the National Road approached Wheeling—a group of investors chartered the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company with the intention to replace Noah Zane’s ferry. They were unsuccessful and for decades, Wheeling and Pittsburgh fought over the creation of a bridge. Residents of both cities sent dozens of messages to US Congress about the controversy throughout the early to mid-19th century.
The two cities often used the same argument to advocate for or against construction of the bridge. Pittsburgh argued that a bridge in Wheeling would prevent steamboats from reaching Pittsburgh upriver—cutting the city off from trade and transportation opportunities, including mail delivery. Ironically, Wheeling also used the mail service to argue for the bridge, claiming that it would prevent issues with delivery.
In 1847, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation greenlighting the bridge to be built without federal funds. Two years later, in 1849, Wheeling celebrated the completion of the longest suspension bridge in the world.

State of Pennsylvania v. Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Co.
In July 1849, only a few months before the bridge was completed, the state of Pennsylvania sued the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company claiming that it unconstitutionally prevented interstate commerce by impeding larger steamboats. Pennsylvania filed the proceeding directly with the U.S. Supreme Court and moved for an injunction against the bridge. The suspension bridge continued to service Wheeling traffic as the case dragged on for a couple years. Both Wheeling and Pittsburgh newspapers covered the case, bringing the latest developments and updates to local audiences.
Pennsylvania’s lawyer was a man from Steubenville, Ohio–right up the river from Wheeling–named Edwin Stanton. A decade later, Stanton became Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War during the Civil War and gained particular fame for organizing the manhunt for Lincoln’s assassinator, John Wilkes Booth. The Wheeling Bridge Case, however, marked his first argument before the U.S. Supreme Court and vaulted his career into wider national recognition.
The Court appointed a special master, Reuben H. Walworth, who determined that the bridge did indeed obstruct steamboat traffic. In February 1852, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of Pennsylvania and ordered the Wheeling Suspension Bridge to be removed or elevated to a height of 111 feet above low water. The decision, however, was a death sentence because it was unrealistic to raise the bridge to that height—especially if steamboats and their smokestacks would only get taller.

Survival of the Bridge
If the Supreme Court ordered the bridge to be raised and that was impractical, how does the bridge still exist all these decades later?
After the Court’s decision, the Wheeling and Belmont Bridge Company and their advocates began lobbying legislators in Congress. Exercising the commerce clause of the Constitution, Congress declared the Wheeling Suspension Bridge (and the bridge on the other side of Wheeling Island) an official post and military road. This designation vacated the Court’s earlier decision because Congress was exercising one of its Constitutionally-granted powers and the Court had ruled in absence of congressional action. Wheeling’s bridge was saved.
As if a multiyear lawsuit and congressional action weren’t enough, on May 17, 1854, high winds destroyed the bridge’s suspension system. Pennsylvania again applied and received an injunction to prevent rebuilding. By August, however, the company had rebuilt the bridge and the case ended up in front of the Supreme Court again. The earlier congressional statute, however, protected the bridge and it was allowed to remain.

Still Transporting Generations Later
The Wheeling Suspension Bridge’s first years of existence were fraught with lawsuits, weather, and congressional legislation. The case represented the growing conflict between land and water transportation development. Even though Congress had legalized Wheeling’s bridge, it did not regulate steamboat heights or bridge clearances and subsequent bridges had to be designated on individual bases.
Over a hundred years later, the Wheeling Suspension Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark. Next time you walk, run, or bike over the bridge, think about how it almost didn’t make it to the 21st century.
References
Green, Jerry Green. “Wheeling and the Development of the Inland Riverboat Trade.” Ohio Valley History 10, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 46-70.
Marvel, William Marvel. Lincoln’s Autocrat: The Life of Edwin Stanton. University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
Monroe, Elizabeth B. “Spanning the Commerce Clause: The Wheeling Bridge Case, 1850-1856.” The American Journal of Legal History 32, no. 3 (July 1988): 265-292.
Rogers, H. John. “The Wheeling Suspension Bridge Case.” e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia, October 7, 2024. https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/entries/1184.