Zenas King was born in Vermont in 1818. He started his career of building bridges in 1858 and moved from Cincinnati to Cleveland, Ohio around 1861. He established a bridge building works on Watson Street in Cleveland in 1865. King founded the King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company in 1871. As early as 1878 it was manufacturing many types of truss, combination, and wooden bridges and by the 1880s it was the largest highway bridge works in the United States. Production moved from Watson Street to larger facilities on Ruskin Avenue in 1888. The company changed its name to the King Bridge Company after the death of Zenas King in 1892. Many of the company's bridges were used during America's westward expansion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and some of these bridges are still standing today.
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