The National Park Service has completed their initial review of the application to have the bridge listed on the National Historic Register. They’ve asked the state to supply some additional information:

 

  • More information regarding other Illinois bridges of this type
  • Some additional diagrams/photos showing the bridges architecture

We are currently working with the state to supply the additional information to the NPS and, considering the upcoming holiday season, we likely won’t hear back regarding further review until the first second quarter of 2018 (predicting government turnaround time is imprecise at best :-).

The listing process is an iterative and interactive one. The application went through a number of iterations with State Historians before being submitted for federal review. You always hope that the current iteration is the last and final one, but each new historian reviewer brings their own experiences and interests into what’s significant and worthy of more elaboration. The application itself plays a role in documenting our national history, so all involved want to take their time and get it right. The good news is that with this being the last level of review, the end is in sight, even if it’s a little difficult to predict exactly when we’ll get there.