Dry Creek Fork Road Bridge

Photos 

Map 

Description 

The original location, builder, and owner of this bridge are unknown except that it was built for use on a private driveway in Belle Meade, an exclusive residential area of Nashville (Carr 1994). The original construction date is estimated to be about 1900. During the early twentieth century, people traveling to the Dry Fork Creek School either forded Dry Fork Creek or crossed on a “swinging” (crude suspension) bridge. In the mid- 1940s, the teacher dismissed school early due to a storm and the fear that the creek would rise and thus strand the children at school. While the teacher was escorting the children across the swinging bridge, a child slipped and fell into the creek and drowned. An unidentified Belle Meade resident, who was then replacing his driveway truss bridge with a new concrete structure, read about the incident in a Nashville newspaper and donated the truss bridge to the school (Carr 1994). Pre-1903 photographs of Belle Meade Mansion (Belle Meade Mansion:P-68, 70) show a bridge at the old Natchez Trace Crossing identical to this bridge, and it is believed probable that the original location of this bridge was at the Belle Meade property (see #33, 19-NonHighway-9). The county and local residents moved and erected the truss bridge at its present location. The Dry Fork Creek Bridge contains one span, a 52.5-foot Double Intersection Warren (Lattice) pony truss resting on concrete abutments. The curb-to-curb width is 11.5 feet, and the out-to-out width is 12.5 feet. The truss is 6.0 feet in height. The composition of the truss is identical to that of the Belle Meade Bridge. Bottom chords, top chords, and end posts are angles paired back to back. The top chords curve downward, without a connection, into vertical end posts, forming a single member. Diagonals are single angles. Four outriggers, formed of angles paired back to back that curve into the bottom chord, provide lateral bracing on the outside of the truss. The railing is composed of angles in a lattice pattern with a diamond shaped boss detail. The bridge is now located on a farm road off Dry Fork Creek Road.

Categories 

Built 1900 (893) Built during 1900s (6,507) Double-intersection Warren pony truss (194) Double-intersection Warren truss (432) Open (37,558) Owned privately (1,416)

Pony truss (15,244) Sumner County, Tennessee (23) Tennessee (1,158) Truss (30,020) Wooden deck (5,899)

Update Log 

• October 29, 2010: Updated by J.P.: added description info
• March 23, 2010: New photos from James McCray
• November 14, 2009: Added by J.P.

Sources 

• J.P. - wildcatjon2000 [at] gmail [dot] com
• James McCray - jamesinslocomb [at] yahoo [dot] com

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