bridges – Page 2 – The Kaintuckeean

No Destination: Georgetown

Downtown Georgetown, Kentucky

I’ve already mentioned a number of locations in and around Georgetown – the College, the Japanese Garden, Ward Hall – but I haven’t discussed Georgetown itself. Originally named Lebanon, the town was renamed after George Washington in 1790 (present day Lebanon, Ky. wasn’t named until 1815).

Although founded by Rev. Elijah Craig and his fellow Baptists, its modern history goes back a little further. In 1774, John Floyd led the first whites into the area during a surveying expedition. Floyd and his men discovered the Royal Spring (which was Georgetown’s primary water source for years). Although Floyd claimed the surrounding 1,000 acres, he never settled the land. John McClelland began establishing a fort in April 1775, but the site was abandoned after an Indian attack in 1776. The white man did not return until Elijah Craig came in 1782.

The community remained a sleepy neighbor to nearby Lexington for many years. Georgetown, however, grew drastically when Toyota located its North American manufacturing facility here. Most notably, all Toyota Camry’s are manufactured in Georgetown. The town is also the home of the Cincinnati Bengals’ summer training camp.

Pictured is the downtown business district, called the Oxford Historic District. It is known for its beautiful examples of late Victorian and Greek Revival architecture. Check out all of my pictures of Georgetown on flickr.

No Destination: John Hunt Morgan Bridge

John Hunt Morgan Bridge, Cynthiana, Ky.

General John Hunt Morgan, the Thunderbolt of the Confederacy, is a favorite Civil War general among many Kentuckians. In Lexington, the statute of him upon his steed is the only one in Kentucky with a mounted Civil War soldier or officer.

In Cynthiana, site of two Civil War battles (both involved JHM), a bridge “honor[s] famous Confederate calvary leader.” Opened to traffic on October 8, 1949, the General John Hunt Morgan Bridge was dedicated in 1950. It replaced a wooden, covered bridge which had been erected in 1837. Closed in 1944 and the flooring and sides removed, daring teenagers attempted to cross the skeletal remains of the covered bridge in 1946. Four drowned. In December 1948, that bridge was pushed into the river and construction began on the present bridge. [*] [*]

The bridge crosses the south fork of the Licking River.

No Destination: Union Mill

Abandoned Bridge, Union Mill (Jessamine Co.), Ky.

The Jessamine County community of Union Mill (on KY-169) once was home to a successful distillery operation, one of several that used to operate in the county. The beautiful Hickman Creek (pictured below at right) provided the necessary moving water for both the distillery and the gristmill.

The first gristmill was constructed and operated by Joseph Crockett, a Revolutionary War veteran, around 1800. By the middle of the 1800s, the distillery was operating and bottling “Old Lexington Club Whiskey.” The mills produced “Hickman Lily” and “Snow on the Mountain” flour. But Prohibition shuttered the distillery, and the mill and community followed. [cite, PDF]

An old 150-foot covered bridge once traversed the creek. According to some reports the covered bridge was replaced in 1915 (see comments to this post), while other reports indicate it was lost in to flood waters in 1932. Still visible below the abandoned four-span, steel bedstead and pony truss bridge that followed is the original stonework from the covered bridge. [Kentucky’s Covered Bridges (KY) (Images of America)]. All of this was abandoned when, in 1955, KY-169 was rerouted slightly to the west.

UPDATE: Immediately below is a picture sent to me by the author of Kentucky’s Covered Bridges, Walter Laughlin, which shows the old covered bridge in its heyday.

Union Mills Covered Bridge
Photo Courtesy of Walter Laughlin

ANOTHER UPDATE: I’ve seen it before, but never added it. From the old Sanborn insurance maps comes this gem, circa. 1903. It identifies the pictured covered bridge and the different buildings related to the distillery. The distillery was in operation daily, five months out of the year. Yield was 20 barrels. See photo below:

Sanborn Insurance Map, ca. 1903 of Union Mill (Source)

Additionally, check out my post from December 2010 wherein I reported on the ultimate demise of the steel pony-truss bridge.

No Destination: Boone Tunnel & Brooklyn Bridge

Travelling south/west on US-68 through Jessamine County is a beautiful, winding drive. When you reach the Kentucky River, you find a ‘modern’ bridge and cross the river. But if you carefully look to your left before reaching the bridge, you will see an old tunnel carved out of the Kentucky Palisades. The tunnel, Boone Tunnel, was the first tunnel in Kentucky constructed for highway traffic.

The tunnel provided access to a 250-foot iron-truss bridge that spanned the Kentucky River from 1871 until 1955. In that year, the bridge collapsed under the weight of a delivery truck and the deliveryman was badly injured. A judge awarded him $50,000, but the governor reduced the damages to $10,000 with the statement that “no man was worth $50,000.”

See also: Jessamine County’s Kentucky River Guidebook.

NoDestination: Switzer Covered Bridge

Even though Fleming County is Kentucky’s Covered Bridge Capital, the Commonwealth’s Official Covered Bridge is located in northern Franklin County. The Switzer Covered Bridge spans 120 feet and was built in 1855 by George Hockensmith (it was restored in 1906, 1990 and rebuilt in 1998 the March 1, 1997 flood).

The bridge is of the Howe truss design. It carried traffic until 1954 and was listed on the National Register in 1974. You can see Switzer off KY-1262 between Frankfort and Georgetown; there is a small pull-off on the far side of the bridge.

There is something amazing about any old covered bridge; they are unique and evidence of a bygone era. Here is what the Lexington CVB says:

Four of Kentucky’s [13 remaining] covered bridges are still open to traffic; you can walk through the others. As you rumble across in your car, or pass your hand across the heavy wooden pegs and timbers — rough-hewn to the eye, but worn smooth by the years — you’ll experience the living sensations of another era.

For more on Kentucky’s Covered Bridges, check out the Kentucky Digital Library.

NoDestination: Singing Bridge (& Merry Christmas)

The Kaintuckeean wishes all a Merry Christmas! Hopefully we can visit a festive place next year (my wife canned this year’s proposed trip to Southern Lights at the Kentucky Horse Park – the traffic was too much).

This year we’ll all have to settle for Frankfort’s year-round caroler, the Singing Bridge. Crossing the Kentucky River at St. Clair Street, this bridge was constructed in 1893 by the King Bridge Company of Cleveland, Ohio. It is a 406-foot Pennsylvania Steel Through Truss Bridge.

Locals call it the “singing bridge” because the steel grate deck “sings” when you drive over it. Although the state transportation cabinet describes the bridge as “safe to drive on,” it is classified as structurally deficient under the standards of the National Bridge Database. It is a landmark that needs funding and restoration/improvements.

Bridges have crossed the Kentucky River at this point for almost 200 years. In 1810, the Frankfort Bridge Company constructed a link between downtown and the “suburbs.” This wooden crossing collapsed in 1834 and a replacement was built the following year. A span of the replacement lasted only 8 days before it collapsed, killing two. A double-roadway covered bridge was completed in 1847 and stood until it was replaced by the current bridge.

No Destination: Johnson Creek Covered Bridge

Located just north of the Blue Licks State Park on KY-1029 in Robertson County, the Johnson Creek Covered Bridge once carried the state highway until it was closed to vehicular traffic in 1966. The Smith-truss design bridge was constructed in 1874 and spans 131 feet; it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

In the early 1910s, the bridge was overhauled by the Bower Bridge Company. The bridge was the target of a 1968 fire (arson); repairs were not made for four years. Today, however, the Johnson Creek Covered Bridge has just undergone a two-year renovation. The renovation was done by the Arnold M. Graton Company New Hampshire, a company that exclusively repairs and renovates historic bridges for preservation purposes. The Graton Company did a terrific job; the bridge is beautiful.

Note: Updated and Corrected on 22 Feb. 2010.

No Destination: The Roebling Bridge

I had plans to go with a friend to last weekend’s Kentucky-Miami (OH) football game at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. To get there, I took the interstate but only as far as the river. We parked in Newport, had a pitcher of beer at the Beer Sellar on the river, and boarded a water taxi which ferried us across and down the river to a spot between the stadium and the baseball ballpark (they do the same thing before Reds’ games).

Aside from enjoying a few minutes on the water, one of the biggest perks was traveling under the Roebling Bridge. Named after its architect, John A. Roebling, the bridge was constructed over a ten-year span and was completed in 1867.

If either the name Roebling or the appearance of the bridge seem familiar to you, they are. After finishing the Cincinnati-Covington bridge, Roebling’s services were utilized in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge which began in 1870 and concluded in 1883. The similarities between the two bridges are clear.

At 1,224 feet, the Roebling Bridge was (at the time of its completion) the world’s longest suspension bridge. This record was surpassed by the Brooklyn Bridge which spanned 1,595 feet.

Also pictured (far left) is the Ascent at Roebling’s Bridge, a 22-story condominium project that was designed by Daniel Libeskind. The structure won world-wide aclaim and was named the best high-rise in America in 2008 by CNBC. I first noticed the Ascent from the Reds’ ballpark during a July 2008 game and it is certainly a beautiful building.

Oh, and Kentucky won the game, 42-0. Go Cats!