Rating:
6 votes

Wesson Gap Road Bridge

Etowah County, Alabama

Photos 

Abandoned Big Wills Creek Bridge

Photo taken by C Hanchey in July 2011

Enlarge

BH Photo #204630

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Lost Pratt through truss bridge over Big Wills Creek on Wesson Gap Road in Gadsden
Location
Gadsden, Etowah County, Alabama
Status
Collapsed during storms
History
Built 1918; Collapsed 2013
Design
6 panel Pratt through truss
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 129.9 ft.
Total length: 161.1 ft.
Deck width: 11.2 ft.
Vertical clearance above deck: 16.5 ft.
Approximate latitude, longitude
+34.04642, -86.08586   (decimal degrees)
34°02'47" N, 86°05'09" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/584374/3767679 (zone/easting/northing)
Quadrangle map:
Gadsden West
Inventory numbers
AL 119 (Alabama bridge number)
BH 10120 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Alabama (1,049)
Built 1918 (512)
Built during 1910s (10,235)
Destroyed by storm (96)
Etowah County, Alabama (29)
Gadsden, Alabama (8)
Lost (31,791)
Lost 2013 (387)
Lost during 2010s (3,679)
 Owned by county (21,997)
Pratt through truss (6,413)
Pratt truss (10,843)
Span length 125-175 feet (4,598)
Structurally deficient (12,511)
Through truss (19,026)
Total length 125-175 feet (6,471)
Truss (38,306)
Wooden deck (6,261)

Update Log 

  • February 28, 2014: New photo from Ben Tate
  • July 20, 2011: New photos from C Hanchey
  • June 20, 2010: Updated by Eddie Douthitt: Corrected GPS coordinates, added design

Sources 

  • Eddie Douthitt - dalton1861 [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • C Hanchey - cmh2315fl [at] yahoo [dot] com
  • Bridge Closed Article
  • Ben Tate - benji5221 [at] yahoo [dot] com
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Comments 

Wesson Gap Road Bridge
Posted February 24, 2014, by Ben Tate (benji5221 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

This bridge collapsed on March 18, 2013.

http://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20130430/news/130439990

Wesson Gap Road Bridge
Posted July 21, 2011, by Tony Dillon (spansaver [at] hotmail [dot] com)

WOW!.......this poor bridge has been rode hard and put up wet!

Appears to be skewed.....in more ways than one!

I agree with Robert about the date....looks more ca. 1890 to me. Perhaps the date given was for a relocation.

Would be a cool span to save, but would almost certainly require dismantling the trusses for repairs.

Wesson Gap Road Bridge
Posted July 21, 2011, by Robert Elder (robertelder1 [at] gmail [dot] com)

I suspect that this bridge is older than 1918. Pin connected trusses had fallen out of favor as riveted trusses became more popular. The portal bracing makes me think that the bridge could have been built in the 1880s or 1890s.

Wesson Gap Road Bridge
Posted July 21, 2011, by Nathan Holth (form3 [at] historicbridges [dot] org)

Yikes! Looks like you got there just in time.