HISTORY
BRIDGES TO THE PAST A Look at Significant Saved, Lost, and Threatened Historic Bridges in Virginia’s Piedmont BY KRISTIE KENDALL
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raveling the backroads on Route 613 from Warrenton to my in-laws’ farm in Sperryville, the familiar, melodic “thump, thump, thump” going over Waterloo Bridge still rings clearly in my mind, even though the bridge has been closed since early 2014. For a moment, during each trip over the bridge, I was instantly transported back to the late 1800s as I imagined a horse and buggy carrying me across the beautiful metal truss bridge over the Rappahannock River, as hundreds of the bridge’s previous travelers had done since its construction in 1878. Each of us has a story familiar to this one. A bridge in your hometown that perhaps you fished off of with your father or older siblings growing up. A bridge that you crossed on long road trips with your family, whose “ka-thump, ka-thump, ka-thump” etched a song into your memory that will forever connect you with that particular place. Perhaps there is pedestrian stone bridge over a familiar trail like the Washington & Old Dominion, that you walked daily. That is the incredible power of structures like historic bridges. They can connect us to a place and transport us back in time. They become a part of our personal experiences and our collective memory within a neighborhood, village, or even larger community. These special places are now under great threat, however. Of the metal truss bridges surveyed in Virginia by the Virginia Transportation Research Council (VTRC) in 1975, more than 90 percent have been lost to date. Of the masonry and concrete arch bridges surveyed by VTRC in 1984, at least 75 percent have been lost. The greatest threat to these bridges is replacement and, indeed, the vast majority of pre-1930 bridges have been determined struc42 PIEDMONTVIRGINIAN.COM |
| SUMMER 2019
turally deficient or are already on the chopping block for removal and replacement. Part of the issue is that the pots of money that the Virginia Department of Transportation has for road work can only be used for bridges that meet certain safety criteria and other modern standards. Almost none of our historic bridges are able to meet that criteria, which means that it is easier to replace than rehabilitate them. Over the last decade, The Piedmont Environmental Council has been a champion for these special historic resources, while working with the community, VDOT, and others to push for their rehabilitation rather than their replacement. Below are several examples of successful stories where bridges were saved, of bridges lost and of bridges that are currently threatened.