Adamsville Bridge

my family farm borders this bridge and there is so much more history to this area than is found or recorded anywhere, that I can find. I am doing a documentary for our local library to be placed in the local history archives, and would appreciate any information that is out there from other sources. In the early settlement days of this county (Gallia County), there was a village settlement here, called Adamsville. There was an earlier bridge prior to this one that built in 1922, I have found some of the metal hardware of it that was unearthed in the re-contruction of the bridge that is currently underway. It really looks like railroad hardware and was buried under the end pier of the Adamsville bridge. There was also an cable suspension bridge with carts to pulley iron or coal and other goods across the creek. There seems to be remains of an old mine on my property, that is adjacent to where the cable bridge was located. Acrossed the bridge on the Call side was the stage coach station, that used the prior bridge for crossing the raccoon creek. To the right of the bridge, in the bend of the creek was a flour mill, and some remains are there still, and the large rock wheel, was discovered about 20 years ago and removed. Also in Adamsville was a post office and a one room school house. This village was self-sufficient, much like alot of settlements in south-eastern Ohio, who utilized the rich resources of Ohio. There is an abundance of natural gas here, and the creek and the fertile bottoms, made this a busy hub in its day. There is a private cemetery from the 1700's and 1800's on my neighbors property, that is the most ornate and very rich ironworks fence and locks and monuments, that indicated that these early settlers, were very wealthy. America can learn from these early pioneers and return back to being self-sufficient and not dependent upon other countries and nations. We must know our history and preserve it, and learn from it. Please let me know if you have any further history that I can document, thank you. Cindy Hager

Apologies for not catching and updating the status.

I think James had a way of importing updated NBI data but I haven't figured out how he did that yet. So we are going to be "stuck" with the 2019 data for a while. So I continue to appreciate the efforts of anyone to update the status of bridges, whoever happens to make the edit.

Returning to the original subject matter, this bridge is slated for rehab. The main cantilever structure will be repaired, while the abutments and the little approach slabs that connect to the cantilever arms will be replaced. I checked in with Tom Barrett at ODOT and he informs me that unfortunately they only got one bid and it was well over budget. They are going to try again in November.

Yes, I've seen our site referenced from local news to in local historic preservation and NRHP forms.

Some of John's pictures are used as modelling references.

Do not think this site and hobby doesn't garner attention. The fact that we are now under the umbrella of the Historic Bridge Foundation shines an even brighter spotlight on us...

Ed,

While I agree with you, I don't think that occurs to everyone. Fortunately, guys like Luke, Nathan and Tony do a lot of 'housekeeping' on the site for the rest of us (sometimes taking a bit of flack in the process).

I have my own issues with the site but, considering it was set up with no membership fees, no moderators and no salaries I think it has turned out remarkably well.

As a result, I've seen it used more and more often as a reference in the media.

Regards,

Art S.

...And not to mention anyone can post a comment to the forum, but you have to have an editor's account to make changes to a page.

We can only update a bridge if we know it's closed/replaced/etc. There's no backend that consistently knows the status of a bridge.

The site is entirely reliant on community input, which is why when the "Magic Flood of Florida" and "Amanda" incidents of previous years happened, they rubbed users the wrong way.

What I'm trying to get at? Why post a comment when you could just correct the entry? I thought that was how this site was supposed to work.

Ed, I'm not sure what you're getting at about Bridgehunter being structured to catch every status change. I, like several others on the site, try to make updates when we see them. However, there is not a paid staff to constantly monitor these things.

It is closed. Matthew Hemmer posted photos showing as much in March 2020. Why he didn't update the status is beyond me.

Tom- If it were closed woulden't someone on Bridgehunter have updated the bridge entry? Is this not why Bridgehunter is structured the way it is?

I got to see this one yesterday and its now closed. Yes, its a very neat one of a kind bridge. There would be no reason to demolish it. There's an almost parallel designated crossing on OH 588. It should be restored for light traffic or pedestrian use.

Janis: Section 106 Review is still ongoing for this bridge. There remain a variety of alternatives still under consideration; ownership by Bob Evans is only one of the several ideas being considered. There is still hope that the preferred alternative will be rehab for continued vehicular use.

I learned today that a rehab is being considered for the bridge. It is quite possible that the Bob Evans Farm will take over maintenance of it.

I find this bridge to be extremely awesome!

I checked with ODOT today and the county is indeed seeking to replace this bridge. The project has not been programmed yet, however. When the project development begins, this will trigger Section 106 which will require a full investigation of the feasibility of rehabilitation.

I will probably nominate this bridge for a truss award in 2014

I am going to declare this bridge doomed due to the article below. I believe that due to the importance of this bridge as possibly the only one of this type in the entire nation it is important to sound the alarm that this bridge could be gone by 2016!

http://www.mydailytribune.com/pages/full_story/push?article-...

I find this bridge to be rather awesome.

Photos from 6/2/12