Each website and group has its own way of recognizing successes and failures. The Bridgehunter’s Chronicles has its own award, known as the Bridgehunter Awards. Formerly known as the Othmar H. Ammann Awards, the awards was started in 2011 and named after an internationally known bridge engineer, who immigrated to the US from Switzerland and left his legacy for the next generations to awe in wonder. The Bridgehunter Awards replaced the Ammann Awards after the 2018 Awards and features nine categories.
Each year in October and November, nominations for the Bridgehunter Awards are collected for the following categories:
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The Ralph Modjeski Lifetime Legacy Award- given to a person who has dedicated his time and efforts into preserving historic bridges and bridge engineers who have designed bridges with very unique value for many years. The award was named after a well-known bridge engineer who later founded a world renowned bridge building company.
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The Jet Lowe Best Bridge Photo Award- given to the person who took the best photo of a bridge. The top three winners will have their photos presented on the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles’ website (for 1st place) as well as its social media pages (on facebook for 2nd place and twitter for 3rd place).
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Best Kept Secret Award- given to a bridge or a series of bridges in one area where little attention is given by mainstream media but deserves attention because of their historic value, unique design, and its poster boy example of how other bridges can be preserved and maintained. The category is divided up into two subcategories:
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The Othmar H. Ammann Tour Guide Award.
This is awarded to cities and regions with a high concentration of historic bridges ranging from a city with many historic bridges, like Lübeck (Germany), to those along a bike trail, such as the Delphi Bike Trail in Indiana, to counties like Caroll County, Indiana. Open to North American and International candidates.
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The James Baughn Individual Award
This award is given to individual historic bridges whose history and unique value was not known to man until now, like the Danville Bowstring Arch Bridge in Arkansas or the West Auburn Bridge in Iowa. Formerly known as Best Kept Secret Individual Bridge although it is used alternatively.
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Mystery Bridge Award- given to the bridge with little or no information about it, but its design and aesthetic value makes it worth a nomination, serving as an incentive to encourage people to do more research on the bridge.
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The Eric N. Delony Award for Best Example of a Restored Historic Bridge is given to a group who successfully saved and restored a historic bridge that is now being reused for future purposes. This applies to a bridge that has been restored as well as one that is currently being restored. This award was named in honor and memory of Mr. Delony (1944-2018), who devoted more than 40 years of his life to restoring historic bridges in the US. Yet this award applies for not only American bridges but also those on the international stage.
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Endangered T.R.U.S.S.-
This is a reincarnation of the Top Ranked Unique Salvageable Structure Awards that was introduced by the late James Baughn in bridgehunter.com website. Upon his unexpected passing in 2020, it was reintroduced as part of the Bridgehunter Awards series and like his awards, they are given to historic structures whose unique design and history are threatened with demolition and/or modification that compromises their historic values.
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Bridge Media and Genre-
This category, introduced in 2021, is devoted to films, books, podcasts and other written and electronic works with a focus on one or more bridges. It can include short stories and poems but also documentaries on the history of building a certain bridge and/or bridge engineers.
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Tour Guide of Lost Bridges-
This category is given to a city and/or region which used to have a high abundance of historic bridges but have now have one or two left, if even.
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Bridge of the Year Award- given to the bridge which has received national and international attention over the course of the year.
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The nominated bridges and person(s) are voted by the public in December with the winners announced in January in the Chronicles as well as other bridge websites and news sources where the winners are located. The Awards are in connection with November being National Historic Bridge Month.
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Furthermore, the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles has the Author’s Choice Awards where the author (Jason Smith) chooses his picks based on the collection of news articles and photos throughout the year. They include the categories of:
Best and Worst Examples of Historic Bridge Reuse
The Salvageable Mentioned
The Best Find of a Historic Bridge
and The Biggest Bonehead Story– a story of how a person destroys a historic bridge through carelessness, ignorance and stupidity
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The nominations are given in two categories: the historic bridges in the USA and the historic bridges on an international scale. The winners of the previous Ammann Awards can be found here:
2012 plus a tribute to Howard Newlon
2013 plus a tribute to James Hippen
2016 plus a tribute to Eric Delony
2019 including podcast and a tribute to John F. Graham
2020 including a podcast and a tribute to James Baughn
2021 including Author’s Choice, tributes to JR Manning, James L. Cooper and Toshirou Okamoto (series)
2022 including Author’s Choice
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Nominations for the 2023 Bridgehunter Awards will start on October 1, 2023 end on 1 December, 2023. Voting will proceed right after the closing of the nominations, ending on January 20, 2024. Winners will be announced on January 21st. If you have a bridge, bridge book or person that deserves to be recognized for either the Ammann Awards or the Best/Worst Pics, please contact Jason D. Smith, using the following contact form below:
For photos, please send them directly via e-mail to flensburg.bridgehunter.av@googlemail.com. Only photos in JPEG (up to 1 MB) and PNG are acceptable. Links to photo websites are accepted. For further photo inquiries, please contact Jason Smith at the Chronicles, directly. Thank you for your help.
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