Beaver Railroad Bridge

I first shot the Beaver Railroad bridge in 1978.  The bridge sat idle but still had the ties and rails on it.  On the far side, the was an abandoned rail car as well.  The bridge photos were shot with a Yashica Mat-124 medium format camera while the photo with both bridges with shot with a 35mm Nikon FE.  Time has not been good to the prints and my scanner is a cheap one.  Still I hope you enjoy them.

Slaytonville Road Bridge

I took the KLR out for a short (100 mile) adventure ride last Saturday. I wound up down past Hartford on Poteau Mountain and on the way back, I turned to run by Sugar Loaf Lake.  On the way back out from the lake I turned onto Slaytonville Road which brings you back out just south of Hackett.  I was enjoying the ride when I come around a corner and there is a brand new concrete bridge starring me in the face.  I slowed down and took some pictures of what is left of the old bridge.  I was shocked, it has been a year since I have been out this way.

Achmun Creek Bridge

I took my KLR 650 out for a 190 mile ride last week that included 4 bridges to stop and photograph.  The first bridge we attempted to ride to was a wash ... literally.  The road was under water and having never been on the road I decided to leave it alone and come back later for that bridge.

So I turned my bike around and rode off to my next quest ... Achmun Creek bridge.  It is located between Danville and Ola on Mickles Switch Road.  The road was slightly drier and the one lane bridge, built in 1920, is open to traffic.  

Frog Bayou Old AR 282 Bridge

This bridge in an abandoned through truss bridge over Frog Bayou on Old AR 282 behind locked gates on private property.  It just sits there deteriorating.  I have wanted to shoot this bridge for some time and last year found out that a guy I work with, his father in law actually owns the land that it sits on.  We get along good so I asked him about possibly getting in to shoot the bridge and he said he would talk to him ... that he was really funny about people coming around his place.  His father in law would not let me come out to shoot it, even though Wayne would accompany me.  

My daughter, who has a photography business Kala Rath Photography, was itching to shoot something with a long lens and knew that I had wanted pictures of the bridge.  She stopped there and shot these photos from the new bridge looking back into the mountain that hides the old bridge now.  This is as close as you can get for now.

North Canadian River Railroad Bridge

It's been a while since my last post, I have not forgotten about bridges.  I have had some surgery and been dealing with some problems with my RA over the past 5 months.  I am feeling much better now although I didn't ride my bike out to this shoot.  

Donna and I had spent the night in OKC and on the way back home I took a little detour to run down this bridge.  The lady on my GPS told me the bridge was here, but there was only one problem ... there were fields on both sides of the road at that point.  So being the highly sophisticated bird dog that I am, I decided to rely on my own instincts to find the bridge.  There was bridge some 300 feet in front of me, I'll start there.  Bingo.

The bridge is an abandoned Warren through truss railroad bridge that crosses the North Canadian River in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma.  It is a beautiful single massive span with the approach removed on south end of the bridge.  I plan to go back later and shoot it in the winter, too much shoulder high weeds and brush for me to be comfortable walking through.  I don't like ticks, chiggers or water moccasins.

Tilly Willy Bridge

While not an iron truss bridge, I thought this was very interesting.  We have had torrential rains over the last 5 days and the water is running out of places to run off.  The Tilly Willy Bridge is located on the south end of Fayetteville.  It is scheduled to be replaced later this year, but could not be located Sunday with all of the flood water run off.

Fryer' Ford Bridge Collapse

It has nearly been two weeks since a careless truck driver brought down a piece of history in Arkansas.  The Fryer's Ford Bridge was the oldest pin-connected Pratt through truss bridge in use.  While it had a 13 foot clearance and a 3 ton weight limit, apparently the driver has a problem with simple math.  His truck was 14 foot tall and weighed 9 tons.  Sure he was given a ticket, the company will most likely get a slap on the wrist, but in the blink of an eye, we lost a piece of history.  The bridge was built in 1890 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

I am still at a loss for words for such blatant disregard for historic property as well as for his own safety.  Those numbers are on bridges for a reason, if you're too stupid to understand them, you're too stupid to have a drivers license.