Rockford Bridge

The state has given the go ahead to tear down the bridge and rebuild. Even though I knew it was going to happen it's still saddens me. There's just so much history and memory's to it. My uncle said only the older people care, and the younger ones could care less. It's not going to be easy to get to town considering that's the only convenient way. My uncle was around three and crawling on some sort of boards that the builders used to walk on. One of the men saw this and quickly grabbed him. Thank god he was spotted and rescued.

I'm very curious as to what the new one is going to look like.

Does the bridge have spread footings? In Michigan we are losing two of our historic concrete arch bridges because they were built with spread footings, a design that I am told is nearly impossible to repair without destroying most of the bridge. Very frustrating.

This is an update on the Rockford Bridge. I found out it needs to be torn down because of structural problems. Almost 90 years after it was built, it is now considered unsafe for use. My uncle who is coincidentally having his 90th birthday this week told us it can’t be saved. It has to be completely torn down. This is the man that removed the snow for us kids to ice skate. It’s very sad but time has taken its toll and unfortunately nothing can be done. It surprises me how sympathetic I have become over this bridge.

Seeing this bridge brings back a lot of memories, for as a child I walked it every day and my uncle had a mill / dam and I would go there to fish or skip rocks. During the winter all the kids would ice skate. My uncle would take his tractor and plow the snow off by the bridge so the kids could skate all threw the wintertime. Keeping the snow off in “Iowa” was know easy job. Before this it was my parents turn. Swimming, fishing, and for the brave, jumping off. This is what it looks like now.