This Old Railroad Bridge
is looking old and it should. It has been around for more than a half century. Many a
train has crossed the river on this old bridge. The picture above is looking toward
the Muhlenberg County side and the bridge is in the raised position. This operation is
remotely controlled now and during periods of barge traffic, it is kept up until a
train approaches. Then from a central control office a button is pushed and the bridge
lowers, locks in position and signals the approaching train that it is safe to cross.
Other than this feature and the bridge needing a good paint job, it is as I remember
when, as a lad, we would swim in the river and play on the bridge. This was our playground..
.....
The above picture is of the same bridge and of the
same time frame. It is a view looking toward the Ohio County side of the river. It
is still an old bridge and needs painting. This view shows two piers while the previous
view showed the one pier on the Muhlenberg County side. Does any question enter your
mind while viewing the piers? One does mine. The middle pier supports two spans and
the Muhlenberg County pier supports the one span and the mechanism and heavier bridge
section, while the Ohio County pier does not seem to support near the weight and it
is a larger pier. Notice how much larger the Ohio County Side bank pier is in comparison
to the others. I have always wondered why this pier was not only larger, but also round.
The other two piers are more oval in shape. Well, stay tuned. I think that I finally
found out the reason.....
Swing Bridge Over Green River!
Well good, you
say.
What does this bridge have to do with Rockport?
Look Closely-It is Rockport!
Rockport Railroad
Swinging Bridge, Turn Table Bridge, or Turn Bridge! Well, I never heard. View is looking
upriver and it appears to be during a flood period. The water is high and surrounds
the pier that is supporting the "Swing" section. A tug with several barges seems to be
passing between piers. The tug is a larger tug than what we used to see and appears to
be pushing six barges. Don't ever remember seeing six barges in tow, but they were
probably smaller then, than those today. Great job of the photographer who remains
unknown. I have a similar picture where someone had marked the picture to indicate
that it was taken before 1932. Thanks to Hilma for the picture.
Another picture of the Rockport "Swing Bridge".
Again thanks to Hilma.
As you can see, someone has
ID'ed this picture and have indicated that it was being guarded by soldiers during World
War I. If you will think back, there is an old road that runs along the "High Bank" of
the river and runs from the Highway Bridge to the Railroad Bridge, crossing under the
Railroad Bridge and connecting to Old Highway 62. This military encampment appears
to be on this river side of the old road. I just never knew, nor to my knowledge was
I ever told of a "Swing Bridge" nor of the bridge being "Guarded" during World War I.
Again, if you have reached this point, thanks for looking. Please
feel free to inform me if you do not want this sort of information on the Rockport/Echols
Web Site. Otherwise, hope this small message was worth your time and effort and
that you felt some enjoyment as well. To be informed of a period of time, that most of
us were not yet on this earth, is more easily done when old pictures are available.
Thanks to Hilma for providing the old pictures. I think that the pictures originally
came from the George Boyd Collection. Thanks George. You made a step back in time
seem possible.
4/12/08. This stat and web page has been modified and altered several
times. Hopefully, there has been an improvement each time. That original was a stat
that I used as an e-mail and then I incorporated it into a web page. Now, I have altered
it once more. I was able to obtain better pictures. Ray McClain called me a week or so
back and said that he had some pictures that I might be interested in and he would be
glad to drop them off at my house. I certainly did not want to slow him. The pictures
that I originally used had been copied, recopied and e-mailed a time or two and were
beginning to show the effect of too many transfers. The ones that Ray provided were
copies of the original and a tad more clearer. Always glad to receive updates. Thanks
for looking.
See you......
jrd
Web Page by jrd on 5/7/06.
Updated HTML code on 10/28/19
Updated page on 10/27/24.
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