I wrote a story a couple years ago about this bridge. Now this week, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for the completed new, modern bridge that has replaced it. Our middle son, Randy, along with our other Callaway County commissioners and others, were there for the event.
Although we are sentimental about those old bridges of our growing-up years, I've got to say, we were very impressed over this new, beautiful, modern one.
David and I took lots of pictures, and we talked to a couple local landowners, who were happy to see it finished. One young man said it would make his trip to Columbia a lot easier. He lived just on the Callaway side and would be crossing it daily.
I know it is progress. The old bridges could not hold up to all the traffic today. But don't you just have some great memories of those bridges you grew up with that were made of iron and wood?
Recently, David and I began a new adventure. We started on a bridge hunt. Mainly to search Callaway, Boone and Montgomery counties, looking for the old bridges. We want to take a lot of pictures of old bridges before they are all gone. I know they have memories for someone. We have found so many of the bridges we remembered are now replaced by big, nice, concrete ones with two lanes.
Remember the clickety-clack of the boards as you drove across? They seemed rough and noisy and sounded like horses galloping. We children would love the sound as we rode across riding in the back of our old truck.
The one that stands out in my mind most of all was over the Auxvasse Creek on the way to my Aunt Abbie and Uncle Ed Akers' home. You had to keep your tires right on the boards that ran across the bridge. You always had the feeling of excitement and that you were doing something really daring because something could go wrong.
I recall an event one day, about this time of the year, after David and I were married. It was time to pick blackberries, and David's Aunt Rita had came to visit us and to go pick. We had to cross over that bridge to get to the big blackberry fields. You could see the bridge from a ways off.
I was driving our pickup truck, and as we neared the big, ominous, rusty-looking iron bridge, I could see Rita was squirming and looking at it a bit concerned. So, I just couldn't help but enlighten her. I explained how we could possibly fall through if I made one wrong move with my tires.
By the time we got there, she was really nervous (with my help), and just before I pulled on it, she said, "STOP THE TRUCK!" She got out and walked across. I was laughing and told her I was just teasing, but she had been thoroughly convinced and insisted I take another road on our way home.
As we drove into Boone County, we came across a road-grader man who had just stopped for lunch. We pulled in beside him and told him what we were looking for. He was very nice and eager to help. He told us some history and location of some of the bridges he knew about. I wish I would have asked his name.
We knew he would know his area, as our son, Randy, who worked here in Callaway County many years as grader man, knows all the roads here. Randy always enjoyed his job and took pride in his roads, as this man we just met obviously does.
I can only smile when I think about someone saying they would just blacktop all the roads if they were in charge. I have heard our son, who is now our Eastern County commissioner, figuring the cost, and how to just maintain and keep the roads graveled. He told me how much it cost for a mile of asphalt an inch deep. I was shocked.
Anyway, some of those old interesting bridges are in danger of being removed because they just cost too much to repair.
Most of the remaining ones have load limits. They will be replaced with modern ones to take care of the extra traffic load of these days, as has the one over Auxvasse Creek on the way to my Aunt Abbie's that I spoke about.
If you are out riding around, you may want to stop and take a picture like we do. A few will have the dates on them when they were made, which will make you wonder how they lasted this long.
This nice, new bridge that is one of those that connect Callaway and Boone counties will begin making memories for others for years to come.