Bridge out!!

There is a river that runs south just a mile or so from my parents farm. I remember going down to the river when I was a kid and we'd get sand when we needed it.

Down river a few miles there is a bridge that we had to cross to go to the town I went to school in. Several times we had to cross that bridge when the water was running high after a heavy rain, high enough that it wasn't to far down from the deck of the bridge, least it didn't look like it when I was a terrified kid. I don't know why it scared me to cross the bridge when the water was high...but it did, enough so that I would dream about it several times over the years, even after I got married. (I've never been really brave. *giggle*)


A month or so ago, just two or three hours after my Mom drove over the bridge and saw debris backing up against the middle pier of the bridge, the bridge was closed because the pier had been swept away leaving a sway in the bridge that shouldn't be there and making it unsafe to drive across.


Here is a close up of what the piers look like...and where the middle one should have been. We went to see it when we were there this last weekend so I could get some photos of it. Till the bridge is replaced, my parents have to go around the long way to town. The unfortunate part about it is, the bridge over the river to the north could be compromised too, cause the river is getting wider at that point, and they are worried about it wiping out the approach to the bridge. Hopefully that doesn't happen...least not till they get the other bridge replaced!


Frankly, from the looks of the bridge, I think it needed replaced before now...but what do I know. Maybe this is God's way of getting it done...thankfully he kept everyone safe when it happened. I feel sorry for the farmers that don't live to far from the bridge...cause to get their harvest to town, they had to go way further now which will take a bite out of their profits. Hopefully the bridge is done by the time they have to worry about that again. :)

I've heard that the new bridge might be done by the first of April of 2011...I won't hold my breath, cause that doesn't seem like very long, especially when we are talking most of that is Winter. I guess only time will tell! :)