(Consolidating my future posts on this subject into one large thread.)

 

A Busy Holiday

 

It has been a busy holiday season at Bridges and Tunnels, involving some exhausting travels through small town Appalachia, work in the rustbelt of northeast Ohio, the rural farmlands of eastern Indiana and the snowy adventures in the highlands of West Virginia.

 

I began my holiday trips with a visit to several historic spans in Indiana on what was arguably one of the coldest days of the month. The lighting was also weak, buried under a heavy overcast, and it was lightly snowing. There was little snow cover, though. Armed with convenience store coffee, I trekked to my first stop, the Moscow Covered Bridge in Moscow. Constructed in 1886 by Emmet L. Kennedy, the two-span Burr Arch truss over Flatrock River was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. A F3 tornado did considerable damage to the crossing on the evening of June 3, 2008 and was rebuilt in 2010 with new and salvaged materials by Dan Collom & Sons.

 

The new Moscow Covered Bridge was dedicated on September 25, 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

Nearby was the Forsythe Mill Covered Bridge. Constructed in 1888 by Emmet L. Kennedy, the single-span Burr Arch truss is named for Asa Forsythe who owned the Hungerford Mill from 1870 to 1884.

 

 

 

The Norris Ford Covered Bridge was constructed in 1916 by Emmet L. Kennedy, and the one-span Burr Arch truss was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

 

 

 

Just as old, the Milroy Bridge formerly carried North Railroad Street and IN 3 over the Little Flat Rock River in Milroy. The pinned Pratt through truss was constructed in 1901 by the New Castle Bridge Company of New Castle and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The abandoned span remains one of three Pratt trusses built by New Castle. The company was merged into the Central States Bridge Company of Indianapolis in 1905.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below: The bridge deck is in poor structural condition.

 

 

 

I ventured into Appalachia to visit several small towns to document the courthouses and notable downtown structures for my partner site, UrbanUp. I did come across an interesting concrete arch bridge on the University of the Cumberlands campus in Williamsburg, Kentucky. Designed by Manley & Young and constructed by the L.W. Hancock company in 1920, this span was recently rehabilitated.

 

 

 

Closer to my hometown, the Bennetts Mill Covered Bridge is located in Greenup County near KY 7. After a decent, wet snowfall, I braved the slushy and snow covered roads to visit this oft-admired beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That concludes the first update to Bridges & Tunnels for this new year. Stay tuned for some varied spans from South Korea in the next post!

I'm really digging the Moscow covered bridge!

Very cool.

loves it

Sunset Over the Ohio

 

The sun sets along the Ohio River over the Carl D. Perkins Bridge between South Portsmouth, Kentucky and West Portsmouth, Ohio. The two-lane cantilever bridge was completed in 1988 and is named after Carl Perkins, a former U.S. representative from eastern Kentucky who was first elected in 1948.