Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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| Cut Bank Bridge crossed N. Mayo south of Spencer |
Marty Wyatt (from left), Clyde Holland and Bill and Leone Price are shown Wednesday morning at the Bassett Historical Center with the replica of the Cut Bank Covered Bridge that Wyatt constructed and donated to the historical center. Holland and Price shared their memories of the bridge, which was destroyed in the 1940s. |
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Covered bridge enthusiasts now know the name and some stories behind a mystery bridge that used to stand near Spencer 65 years ago, with help from two local residents with long memories.
Bill Price of Martinsville and Clyde Holland of Ridgeway shared what they remembered of the Cut Bank Covered Bridge, which spanned the North Mayo River three miles south of Spencer on Virginia 695 until it was destroyed around 1943.
They were present Wednesday morning at the Bassett Historical Center, where carpenter Marty Wyatt unveiled a replica he built of the bridge based on a single photo. Wyatt drove from Terre Haute, Ind., to donate the replica to the center’s permanent collection.
The search for information on the lost bridge started when Wyatt, webmaster for the Covered Bridge Society of Virginia Inc.’s Web site, posted an old Virginia Department of Transportation photo of the bridge at www.covbrdgsocvainc.com and asked people to share any information they knew. He originally called it the North Mayo River Covered Bridge because of its former location.
Holland, who lived “maybe a mile as the crow flies from the bridge,” supplied the name. He said his uncle Dave Holland always called it the Cut Bank Bridge.
“I remember as a kid visiting my uncle and grandma,” who lived nearby, Holland said. “You could hear whatever traffic was crossing the bridge by the popping of the boards.”
Before the advent of cars, Holland said, “One of my neighbors said he remembered having to put a burlap bag over the horses’ and mules’ heads to get them to go in (the bridge).”
Price told the story of how his mother, Helen Eliza King, and her future sister-in-law, Ada Price, had a mishap crossing the bridge in 1906 or 1907.
They were driving a horse-drawn buggy when “the bottom of the bridge just dropped down,” sending the buggy into the North Mayo River, still upright. No one was hurt, he said.
“They just pulled the reins around and drove down the river until there was a place on the bank to pull the buggy out,” Price said.
The word “river” is misleading, however, because it was really more like “a great big creek,” he added.
Price, who will turn 94 in March, also recalled driving a car across the bridge several times, as well as “an oil truck loaded with kerosene. Everybody used kerosene back then.”
Wyatt asked him if he remembered any kind of sign hanging from the top of the bridge. Price said he had never noticed the top because the bridge was so narrow that his main concern while driving was “looking down to make sure the wheels were in the tracks down there.”
State transportation records show the bridge was built in 1858 and rebuilt in 1876. All that remains today is part of the footings, still visible in the river.
Wyatt said the original bridge was 63 feet long and probably about 10 feet wide, though the picture he worked from did not have a clear view of the width. Thus, he could not build a model exactly to scale. His replica is around 40 inches long and weighs between 50 and 60 pounds.
It is important to preserve the stories of people who actually used the bridge, Wyatt said.
“To me, the stories we hear today are what make it most interesting,” he said. “We need to get them documented and recorded. That way, they’ll be there for future generations.”
Covered bridges are “a very important part of our past,” Wyatt said. They allowed traffic and trade to come to different areas and encouraged development, he said.
Wyatt’s appreciation for the historic bridges increased when he spent five years rebuilding full-sized covered bridges in Kentucky. He said it took seven months to take one bridge down and replace it, even with “all this high-tech stuff we had to work with.”
In the 1800s, “they didn’t have any of that,” he said. “You wonder, how could anyone build something like that ... and have it stand 150 years? That’s what amazes me.”
The Cut Bank bridge replica is the latest of many covered bridge models Wyatt has built and donated to historical societies. It takes about 100 hours of work and $250 of materials to build each one, he said.
“It’s something that gets into your blood, and once it’s there, you can’t get rid of it,” Wyatt said.
Last year, he donated a scale model of the Jack’s Creek Covered Bridge in Patrick County to the Bassett Historical Center. Jack’s Creek is one of seven surviving covered bridges in the state.
“We at the center appreciate it very much,” said Pat Ryan, center supervisor. “This is a great thing for us to display and have, especially in Henry County, where we didn’t think we had any covered bridges.”
Wyatt said the state Covered Bridge Society is aware of three covered bridges that used to exist in Henry County.
About 100 covered bridges in Virginia are known to have been lost, he said.
The society also is looking for information on another Henry County covered bridge that stood about 3 miles west of Spencer on Route 699. It was built in 1901 and washed away in 1937, Wyatt said.
He encouraged people to visit the society’s lost covered bridge Web site at www.indianawyattbridge.com and share any information or photos they have on any former bridges.
People also can e-mail Wyatt at Marty@wyattbridge.com or contact the Bassett Historical Center at 629-9191. |
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