The Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) came into being in 1972—the same year as the Society for Industrial Archeology (SIA)–and set about to record notable surviving examples of engineering and industry in a country experiencing rapid deindustrialization. One pillar of that recordation were bridges which were, ironically, being lost and/or being made redundant by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 (aka, the Interstate System).

In 1974, HAER produced technical drawing TI-1, “Trusses, A Historical Study by the Historic American Engineering Record” that has become iconic among industrial archeologists.

In honor of Robert Vogel’s life-long engagement with HAER, SIA, and with bridges, we present here as many of these types of trusses as we have been able to find in his slide collection. As far as we know he never tried to bag all of these trusses, but it wouldn't surprise us if he did. Also, since only just under half the whole collection is scanned we will add more as we find them. But for now, here is his bridges life-list, which we will add to as we find them.

Robert Vogel is a lifelong promoter of the principles of HAER, as well as a great bridge aficionado. Presented here are his photos that illustrate HAER’s famous 1974 (rev. 1976) bridge typology TI-1.