Walter Sharp

"Of all the 200 stone bridges that I have built there is not one that has not withstood the floods, freezing and all other destructive conditions that were brought to bear upon them."

So wrote Kansas's legendary stone arch bridge pioneer, Walter Sharp. But what made his bridges unique was far more than his choice of building material.

Walter Sharp: A Story of Stone Arch Bridges, the Good Roads Movement, and Decentralized Infrastructure travels back in time to probe the writings of Sharp and his contemporaries. Newspaper archives reveal a forgotten tale of political intrigue and hard-fought progress.

In his own words, Sharp unfolds to the modern reader his plan for building strong communities through infrastructure using local labor and materials for quality buildings, roads, and bridges. He writes of the early days of the Good Roads Movement and his dedicated promotion efforts, leading to the adoption of the stone arch bridge, the icon of Cowley County but once vital across south-central and southeast Kansas.

But old articles reveal another side to the Good Roads Movement, fraught with legislative tangles, patent controversies, and a struggle for control of Kansas roads, all in the name of state and federal aid.

Walter Sharp invites readers to consider a question still relevant today: Who is responsible for progress?

"The bridge problem is one that will be of interest to every one except the fellow who stays home; but the man who does things must cross some kind of bridge," Sharp wrote.

Meet the man who built the bridges that rocked Kansas, and find your own answers to the question of progress.