Phoenix Bridge Company

The Phoenix Bridge Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania on April 2, 1884. For much of its life it ranked among the top five American builders of iron and steel bridges.

The enterprise had been founded in 1864 as a spin-off of the Phoenix Iron Company of Phoenixville, Pa., a pioneer in the manufacture of structural iron. The firm was originally known as Kellogg, Clarke & Company, with Thomas Curtis Clarke, a noted bridge builder, as junior partner. The German-born Adolphus Bonzano joined the firm as chief engineer in 1868. The firm was reorganized in 1871 as Clarke, Reeves & Company, when David Reeves and John Griffen of the Phoenix Iron Company were admitted as partners. In 1873 Clarke, Reeves & Company contracted to perform all bridge work for Phoenix. The famous prefabricated Phoenix Columns were used as compression members in most of the early Phoenix bridges, such as the 1874 Girard Ave. Bridge in Philadelphia and the Second Avenue Elevated in New York.

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