Maury County commissioners voted to demolish this historic bridge in the Sandy Hook community of Maury County in February, but the Army Corps of Engineers will hear a case for its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
Maury County commissioners voted to demolish this historic bridge in the Sandy Hook community of Maury County in February, but the Army Corps of Engineers will hear a case for its inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
A group of Maury County residents are continuing their fight to save an historic bridge in the Sandy Hook community, the last remaining bridge of its type in Tennessee.
Sandy Hook resident Philip Crews has spent the last several months researching and campaigning for saving the bridge from demolition, though the Maury County Commission voted in February to go forward with demolition.
The holdup, however, is that the bridge is now under consideration for the National Register of Historic Places, as the Army Corps of Engineers has placed the site on its agenda to consider it for historical value. Among the criteria the organization considers is whether the structure embodies “distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic value, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction.”
Built in 1916 by the W.B. King Bridge Co., this is the only bridge that remains standing in the United States constructed by the company, according to bridgehunter.com. It is also one of no more than five bridges in the country that is a concrete arch bridge with five parapet arches, including the only one in Tennessee.
“This unique bridge belongs to all Maury County citizens and it deserves to be preserved,” Crews, who runs a Facebook group with 1,400-plus members dedicated to the preservation of the bridge, said.
Even if the bridge were determined to be unsafe for daily traffic, Crews said he has hired a former bridge inspector from the Tennessee Department of Transportation to examine the bridge to see if it could become a pedestrian bridge with a swinging gate for emergency traffic only.
“We would be very happy to have this bridge become a pedestrian bridge if that’s what it takes to save it,” Crews said. “We would like to have emergency access, though, because we have had situations where flooding has caused the only other way out to be impassable.”
The estimated cost of the bridge’s demolition is $1.4 million with the county being responsible for $280,000.
Chris Yow has served as the managing editor for the Trussville (Ala.) Tribune and, most recently, the Spring Hill Advertiser News. He has worked as a sports editor and has covered high school sports in different capacities for 18 years.
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