Editor’s note: These articles are the first in a five-week series that examines the history, condition and possible future of the former Bellaire Bridge. The series will continue each Sunday in March.

BELLAIRE — Known as “The Bridge Man” by area residents who used the former Bellaire Bridge, James Brutchey is still approached by people from both sides of the Ohio River who remember his smile or kind words he shared when they paid their tolls.

“I got acquainted with a lot of different people who crossed that bridge,” the 80-year-old said. “I knew everybody that was going back and forth on it for work.”

Taking up residence in the booth in 1974, Brutchey saw the toll fee rise from 15 cents to 25 cents to a half-dollar for one-way trips over his 17 years on the job.

In the same way residents stop him to reminisce on past interactions they had on the bridge, Brutchey is still told by those who used the bridge in its heyday how they miss the convenience.

“A lot of people tell me, ‘I’ll be glad to pay $1 to go one way across the bridge,'” he said. “Back in the day while it was closing, a lot of customers were going to the head honchos to have it stay open.”

The morning rush on the bridge was from 5:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. while Bellaire residents would cross over to their workplaces in Benwood and vice versa. Brutchey not only collected coins from industrial workers, such as steel plant employees, but also from lawyers, doctors and bankers.

In the afternoon, Brutchey would see the same faces heading home. Bumper-to-bumper traffic was common starting at 5 p.m. as Bellaire residents rushed to get back across the river.

During breaks from the rush, Brutchey would sometimes leave the other employee manning the booth to keep an eye on traffic. He would then head across the bridge and down its steps to pick up some pizza and pepperoni rolls from the Benwood Undo’s restaurant, situated beneath the ramp to the span.

“I really enjoyed working there,” he recalled. “The only thing that bothered me was that it got cold in the wintertime, but otherwise in the summertime, it was nice to be out there.”

With so many memories accrued and faces greeted during the almost two decades he worked on the bridge, Brutchey said he was devastated when the structure was closed to all traffic. His other moniker, “The Last Toll Collector,” is one Brutchey takes pride in, as he collected the final fee for the last car that crossed the bridge in May 1991.

Today, Brutchey is still a collector in a different sense. The lifelong Bellaire resident was inspired by his late wife, Brenda Brutchey, to begin collecting artifacts from the structure in 1987 when she returned home one day with a couple of newspaper clippings about the bridge.

Brutchey has now amassed an impressive array of Bellaire Bridge memorabilia. His collection includes toll tokens, tickets, a cash box, toll booth operator aprons and Bellaire Bridge-branded hats and T-shirts that employees wore on the job.

On top of souvenirs, the former employee has assembled three binders filled with newspaper articles on the bridge, daily sales report sheets, bridge pass records, toll collector work policies and photographs of the bridge.

His more than three decades of collecting have allowed Brutchey to craft a history of the bridge from its construction to its present deterioration. This history has yet to reach a conclusion, as the bridge remains standing despite multiple court orders for the structure to be demolished.

Brutchey cited the “many controversies” surrounding ownership of the bridge. Notable entries in the bridge’s troubled history include current owner Lee Chaklos not informing the city of Benwood of liens on the bridge’s scrap metal and former owner Roger Barak selling the bridge for $1 to Advanced Explosion Demolition to feature on the reality TV show “The Imploders.”

The bridge never got its screen time, as AED was one of the bridge’s many owners who failed to destroy the structure.

“I’ll tell you what, it’s been interesting,” Brutchey said of immersing himself in the bridge’s history. “I love history, and this was part of my life on it for 17 years.”

Though he grew up marveling at the bridge in school textbooks and is now writing a history book on the subject, Brutchey remains realistic about what he believes the fate of the bridge should be.

“I don’t like to say it, but I’m afraid of what’s going to happen if a piece falls off and either hurts or kills somebody on the Benwood side of the river,” Brutchey said. “The state’s going to have to come in and do something once that happens.”

Brutchey agrees with Benwood city officials such as Police Chief Frank Longwell and Director of Public Works and Development David McLaughlin that the bridge’s deterioration is an accident waiting to happen.

The lack of maintenance done on the bridge in the almost 33 years since its closure reflects for Brutchey an overall lack of effort toward preserving the history of the Ohio Valley.

“The way the bridge looks right now rusting away, I’d rather see it torn down,” Brutchey added. “It would have been nice to preserve this piece of history in the valley, which is why I started collecting stuff on the bridge.”