War Eagle repairs : Historic bridge celebrates 100 years, awarded $950,000 for renovations
Posted on Saturday, June 28, 2008
WAR EAGLE - Building a new bridge across the War Eagle River is not an option for area residents.
The 100-year-old structure of the War Eagle Bridge is failing under the traffic pressures of the modern world, and the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department says something needs to be done. However, County Judge Gary Black's new bridge comment a few years ago was met with a resounding "no."
"There was an uproar in this community about building a new bridge; they wanted to keep the old one," Black said during a ceremony on Friday celebrating the 100 th anniversary of the bridge. "We've tried to limit the traffic over the bridge because it was built during the horse-and-buggy days. The Model T and A were just coming into existence."
Billy Sharp, 81, a lifelong resident of the War Eagle area, is also a longtime advocate of the bridge, which he remembers from his childhood.
Sharp said the bridge has been in worse shape than it is now, but improvements are still needed.
"I know that this approach (on the east side ) was washed away by the river at one time, but I was too little to remember that," Sharp said. "Probably the worst shape it's been in was in the early'40 s when the floor got real bad."
The highest recorded water level of the river was 11 inches above the floorboards in 1943.
Sharp said the bridge on Benton County Road 98 has stayed usable for so many years because of the local people keeping in contact with county officials.
"We get after them and try to keep them notified. Staying on top of them has kept this bridge intact," Sharp said.
The county has plans for a $ 950, 000 renovation of the bridge, which is listed as a national historic place. The state will provide 80 percent of the costs if the county will match 20 percent. Black said the State Historic Preservation Office has yet to sign on to the bridge's renovations, a project that would close the bridge for public use for a while.
Zoe Caywood, who with her parents is responsible for rebuilding the War Eagle Mill in 1973, said renovations on the 183-foot bridge could begin as early as the end of October.
"They'd replace some of the old iron, refloor it, repillar it, though I'm not sure how they'd do that because that's cut stone. The important thing is maintaining the integrity of the bridge," Caywood said.
The nostalgic element the bridge adds to the area is important for longtime residents as well as firsttime visitors, she said.
Caywood said she has been attending Quorum Court meetings and petitioning for the bridge and the mill since 1974 after her family moved into the area. She said she has complete records of all her correspondence with local government concerning the bridge.
"It's just incredible what this place means to people from all the stories I've heard," Caywood said. "And I think it should be a place where people can continue to come and look and to think about what it was like back then."
The residents of War Eagle originally petitioned the local judge in January 1907 for the need of a bridge across the river that would frequently swell and prevent travel to and from the east and west sides of the river.
The contract with the Illinois Steel Bridge Co. to build the bridge is dated May 18, 1907, with a June 20, 1908, projected completion date.
The full construction of the bridge cost $ 4, 790, which would, after inflation, probably be valued at around $ 1. 4 million in today's economy, Benton County archivist Mike Carney said.
Carney, with the County Clerk's Office, prepared a display containing the original documents relating to the building of the bridge, including the original petition, the contract, the bond notice and a copy of the original blueprint.
"We rarely celebrate our county's infrastructure," Carney said, who also had a granite plaque made for the 100 years of service of the War Eagle Bridge. He said the idea of a ceremony came up about six months ago.
"The problem now is that structurally it's beginning to fail, and the county is responsible for the bridge because it's on a county road," Carney said. "When the property owners in the area said they didn't want a new bridge and just wanted to renovate this one, the issue became a political hot potato."
Black will finish his term by the end of the year, so the next county judge will have to pick up where Black left off in the process of renovating the bridge.
Both county-judge contenders in the November election, David Bisbee and Bill Williams, attended the ceremony at the bridge Friday.
War Eagle Mill manager T. J. Young, 32, said she began going out to the bridge to either fish or swim 22 years ago.
"I still fish off that bridge, and now my kids do. I would say it's a soft spot for me," Young said.
Young's daughter, Taylor, 8, said she sometimes goes to the mill when her mom goes to work.
Taylor, a student at Grace Hill Elementary School in Rogers, said she likes to fish, swim and just look around outside at the bridge.
"The best thing about it is that my mommy works here now," Taylor said.
Caywood said she will continue to do everything she can to preserve the memories made at the bridge and to help people make new ones.
"We want to maintain the history here; that's what's important to us," she said.
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