MOUNTAIN VIEW -- One of Arkansas' historic bridges has reopened to vehicle traffic after being closed for three months for renovation.
The Sylamore Creek Swinging Bridge is a one-lane, wire-cable suspension bridge on a county road near Allison, 6 miles north of Mountain View. It crosses South Sylamore Creek, a tributary of the White River.
About $108,000 was spent to renovate the bridge at 470 Swinging Bridge Road, with most of that money coming from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program.
The work entailed replacing all wooden parts of the bridge, including the decking, which had been deteriorating. The bridge has a steel substructure and towers.
The bridge was originally constructed in the 1910s by the U.S. Forest Service and settlers, according to For the Trees: An Illustrated History of the Ozark-St. Francis National Forests 1908-1978 by Sharon M.W. Bass.
Children swam in South Sylamore Creek as cars passed on the reopened bridge. Judy Stevens, 79, of Mountain View said after driving over it that she couldn't believe the difference.
"It barely moved at all. You had to drive across it years ago to know the difference," Stevens said. "When you went across it before, it just rolled in front of you -- you could see it rolling. It is so much better now."
Stevens said her grandfather Henry Engle was a foreman for the bridge's construction. Ralph Huey was superintendent of the project a century ago, according to For the Trees.
Stacey Avey, county judge of Stone County, walked over it, taking a moment to grasp the rail and bounce up and down to gauge the bridge's response. Avey said he could still feel the bridge move a little, like suspension bridges do, but the structure was solid.
The only other wire-cable suspension bridge in Arkansas that's still used by vehicles is the Beaver Bridge, a one-lane bridge over the White River on Arkansas 187 in Carroll County. It was built in 1949 and is sometimes referred to as "The Little Golden Gate Bridge" of Arkansas.
The Sylamore Creek bridge -- which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 -- is considerably smaller at 202 feet long, compared with the 554-foot-long Beaver Bridge.
Mark Christ, a spokesman for the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, said it was important to preserve the Sylamore suspension bridge.
"It's the only one of its kind," he said. "The Beaver Bridge is a much larger bridge. This one is on a county road. It is truly a unique resource."
A grant from the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program provided $66,666 for the renovation work. Stone County contributed about $41,500 to the project, said Mitzi Hargan, director of community development for the White River Planning and Development District, which is based in Batesville.
Seagraves Construction Inc. of Maynard was the contractor. Miller-Newell Engineers Inc. of Newport was the engineer.
According to the grant application, the bridge has a set of steel cables draped over two steel towers on concrete piers. The county had replaced the wooden planks on the bridge "numerous times."
"The bridge serves as both a historical and tourist attraction and is located between the two major tourist attractions of the region: the Ozark Folk Center and Blanchard Springs Caverns, each being just minutes from the bridge," according to the application.
Renovation was necessary to keep the bridge open to vehicle traffic, according to the document. More extensive work has been done in the past.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department declared the road a state highway in the 1940s, and the bridge didn't meet specifications, Avey said.
For one thing, the stone piers had to be replaced with concrete and steel. That work was done in 1945.
Avey said the Highway Department gave the road and swinging bridge back to the county in the early 1970s, when the agency built a new bridge over South Sylamore Creek on Arkansas 14.
Also in the early 1970s, producers of the movie The Bootleggers stopped the filming of cars going over the bridge until a preacher finished baptizing Stevens' son and other youths in the swimming hole below the bridge.
On Dec. 1, 1982, floodwaters rushing down the creek flipped the bridge over, Stevens said.
Her husband, Benny, helped retrieve the planks from the creek bed so they could be used to rebuild the bridge. Three decades earlier, then-17-year-old Benny Stevens had a religious experience on the swinging bridge, Judy Stevens said.
"My husband, when he got saved, he was standing on that bridge watching a baptism," Stevens said. "He said the Lord just spoke to him, and he ran down to the gravel bar, and he gave his heart to the Lord."
Metro on 06/09/2015