Winter 2017
I'm a sucker for hard work, no doubt about that. Also love some peace & quiet and Spring Canyon on the far west side of Gadsden County FL has all that. My first day of labor was when the lumber got delivered for the new bridge so I went out to check on that and since I was there, I started demolishing the old bridge. Why you might ask? Well I saw Ms. Helen step thru a rotted plank one day. She didn’t get hurt but even tho I had replaced many of the planks, I didn’t get them all. The bridge was dying fast.
West side of footbridge - note the board on the left side that I put in last year to support a soft spot, spread the load so to speak. I’m standing on a riser near the center that was put in so one could paddle boats under the bridge.
East side - the fencing and top rails are already down. There’s some new lumber in the center that was added to bridge the gap where the bridge fell in when Tom was leaning against the railing to whack back the grass and weeds.
Here’s the post that held up Tom when the bottom fell out. Rotted thru at the waterline. See the dried out snake carcass next to it top center. That suddenly appeared one day right at the entrance to bridge after I had wandered off to look at fall colors. I set aside here and darn if it didn’t disappear again 2 weeks later.
east side at the shore. I was working from east to west since the parking area is on the west side. This is when I discovered the original pilings, old telephone poles, that were sunk when the bridge was first built in the ’60s. Guessing that the poles were put in before the dam was completed. If only they had been 6” higher and above the eventual water line.
Rather than carry the old lumber 100’ back across I used this canoe dragging it with a rope. After removing all the planks, I got in the canoe to remove the crosspieces and some of the 4x4 poles.
and here is the east side a couple workdays later.
next to deconstruct is the riser in the middle. I was not sure how to do this but I’m very thankful the assembled patch boards were long enough to “bridge” the gap. At this point I was moving very slowly and not trusting anything I stepped on.
another view at the end of a workday. Those tall 4x4s that supported the riser were sunk in maybe a foot and dependent on crossboards to hold them in place. The steps up and down were too steep and everyone struggled with them.
closeup of original piling and railroad ties on top of those. Some of the ties had rotted out and were hosting ants. One more reason the bridge was failing.
some of the 4x4s, and a rotted tie. You can see they were not sunk in very far. I did not remove many of them since it was hard to get enough leverage to pull them up while in a canoe. Pulling out 4” nails and ripping off the crosspieces while floating was also a challenge. Some I cut loose with my battery saw-saw. I dropped my favorite screwdriver once. That was near the far end in 5’ of water with another foot of muck. After 20 minutes with a rake, I did recover it. Also dropped my crowbar but I got smart and brought a big old speaker magnet and went fishin’.
So most the 4x4s are still standing and someday I’ll go out with Tom and we’ll figure out a way to get them. And we now call the old footbridge a pier. Next time, building the new bridge. Meanwhile, see ya in the comments!
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