Rhinehart Road Bridge

Is it strange to miss an old bridge? Sure wish I could have gotten more pictures of it. I could have gotten the old plaque that was broken off the year before it was brought down, but someone beat me to it. I did manage to retrieve a little piece of the bridge. It was the only thing I could pick up out of the pile. It's hanging on a nail in my barn. Plan on engraving the bridge's name and dates on it. I brushed it off a little bit and found that before it was painted silver, it was orange. Would've liked to seen that.

The new bridge is open. It's an ugly concrete slab. No character what so ever. I live a few houses away from the bridge and it makes all of us sad. With the old bridge people would stop and let the other car pass. Folks would smile and wave at each other just like the olden days. Now it's woosh, they're gone. Another link to our history destroyed. Back when the old bridge was still standing, I used to walk or ride my bike to it and stare at it, wondering what it was like back when it was being built. How many people worked on it. How long it took to put it up. How much money it cost. All the changes it saw in the decades, and boy that's a lot of changes in this area. I'm sad as heck. It was the first bridge I ever crossed in my life. I even miss hearing the sound of traffic driving over it. The boards on the deck made a certain noise that can't be replicated by a concrete slab! They tore it down by knocking it over with a back hoe. It was a very dishonorable way to take it down. I wish I could've gotten a big piece of it, like one of the iron posts that would meet the traffic before starting the side railing.

This bridge has been torn down and rebuilt. It is soon to reopen.