Zachary S

It's jaw dropping to realize how quickly a river can modify its course. Scary, even. Just a small reminder of how small and we are in the big picture to the forces shaping the world around us.

The abandoned oxbow bit is intriguing. I've been using Google Earth for years to track down hundreds of unlisted historic and generally abandoned bridges to add here but to make sure there's no adding an already existing one I have to add each bridge individually from here to my placemarks folder, which only contains a few states thus far. If I had a pick for a new site feature I would love to see a way to grab the coordinates from all listed bridges per state into a kml or kmz file to import to Google Earth so I could satellite search states with too high a number of listed bridges to realistically add to my placemarks manually haha.

Relocated safely to a park AND replaced by a decent looking modern pony truss. If an old truss absolutely must go from its original site and another historic bridge can't be used as a replacement, you can't ask for a much better outcome.

I have a model railroad book, which I believe is a collection of magazine articles, which describes this bridge and gives a detailed diagram and modeling instructions using the actual bridge's measurements. I have reason to believe that the current bridge here is the third at this location, with this being the first. I also believe that there may be at least one pier or abutment still extant from the 1887 bridge on the hill alongside the current span.

Just as a matter of semantics, should we really list this one as lost? Yes, it was almost totally destroyed by the tornado in spectacular fashion and is perhaps worthy of being in said category, but then again, with some original piers still standing and the rest replaced by very similar replacement spans built in a very similar manner, perhaps it's better to list it as reconstructed or renovated rather than lost? The Kinzua bridge suffered a similar fate and I believe it's not listed as lost.

I noticed it was closed, and to be frank, I am SO glad it's because an idiot broke some railings and crashed into the creek and not because they are trying to replace it, like they have with the vast majority in this county. The articles make it sound like the county really wants to repair it and keep it open which is terrific, but they need the funds for a new guardrail.

Now if only some jackass doesn't come in with a blowtorch and tear beams off for scrap metal while it's closed like I'm told they did on Smith Chapel Road...

Assuming this is the same bridge as is being reported on by NWS Mobile, and I think it is, this span has sadly been claimed by high waters resulting from flooding left in Tropical Storm Cindy's wake.

Passed underneath on an Amtrak journey just now. Doesn't appear to have been put back in place yet, but so glad to hear of its positive fate.

If there is any good news, the town/county is rather adamant that the bridge be restored. That does not mean this WILL happen though as the bill for repair is pretty high. I hope the trucking company is forced to pay for that, but this IS the United States, where corporate responsibility is laughed off and pushed off on local communities and taxpayers.

Interesting to note, some of the photos show a wooden deck, while more recent ones show a pretty fresh looking steel grate deck. Pretty sad that a bridge that'd been taken care of so well was seriously damaged by an absolute imbecile.

Well if it comes down to a bridge-sit as an act of civil disobedience at demo time, definitely count me in. Might be the futile but would certainly make a point.

This... is a weird bridge. It looks like it was made by putting together random truss parts, and I don't even think it functions as an actual truss.

Now gone.

As per a couple of 2012 news articles, plans to replace the bridge have apparently been set forth.

Apparently replaced by new concrete bridge in 2011.

Appears to have been replaced based on Google Earth.

Hmm. Well the linked article on metal theft is rather infuriating... major problem for metal bridges in the central part of the state. People have no respect for heritage.

There are historical aerials and maps avaliable at http://alabamamaps.ua.edu/aerials/ if that helps.