Coosa River Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Polygonal Warren through truss bridge over Coosa River on AL 77 in Southside
- Location
- Etowah County, Alabama
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1939 by the C.G. Kershaw Contracting Co.
- Builder
- - Charles G. Kershaw Contracting Co. of Birmingham, Alabama
- Design
- Polygonal Warren through truss
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 202.1 ft.
Total length: 868.2 ft.
Deck width: 19.7 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 14.5 ft.
- Also called
- Gilbert's Ferry Bridge
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +33.94264, -86.02568 (decimal degrees)
33°56'34" N, 86°01'32" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 16/590038/3756223 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Dunaway Mountain
- Average daily traffic (as of 2015)
- 11,773
- Inventory numbers
- AL 2035 (Alabama bridge number)
BH 10083 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection report (as of July 2015)
- Overall condition: Fair
Superstructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Good (7 out of 9)
Deck condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Sufficiency rating: 60.8 (out of 100)
View more at BridgeReports.com
Update Log
- March 2, 2014: New photos from Ben Tate
- December 15, 2013: New photos from John Adair
- March 23, 2010: Updated by Nathan Holth: Added Street View and Corrected GPS.
- July 9, 2008: New photos from James McCray
Sources
- James McCray - jamesinslocomb [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Nathan Holth
- City of Southside - History of the bridge and former ferry service
- Douglas Butler
- John Adair - ijohna [at] gmail [dot] com
- Ben Tate - benji5221 [at] yahoo [dot] com
Comments
This swing bridge is a less common continuous-style-truss swing span, where it looks like a single span with a pier under the center, rather than two simple-style-truss spans joined at the center to a tower. I was looking at an online (Google Books) historical book the other day that had the correct "technical" terminology to distinguish between these swing span types, but i can't recall which book it was or what terminology. It was a two volume set one devoted to movable bridge superstructures and the other to movable bridge mechanics. An interesting read.
Photo #6 does indeed show a round pier with gearing on top under the center of the north truss, indicating a swing span.
Here's an article that states it, too.
Picture 6 says it's showing the swing span.
This is a truss bridge incorrectly categorized as being a moveable bridge.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/al/etowah/2035/
The Southside bridge with the swing span was opened in the mid 1970's for inspection, then closed and welded shut. I regret that I didn't take pictures, but I did get to see it.