Some sources have listed the date of construction for this railway bridge as 1916; 1928 is the accepted year per the construction records of the Virginia Bridge & Iron Company, and this is confirmed by a photograph I made of a broken but legible date plate on one of the trusses. The style is known as “through-truss” and this is one of just a handful of surviving rotating bridges in Georgia. The idea of such a bridge was to allow large river-going vessels passage, though by the time the bridge was built, most riverboat traffic had long since been made obsolete by the railroad.
The bridge is well-known landmark to travelers along US Highway 341. I drive past it about twice a month and have photographed it numerous times.
Tina Clay recalls: My grandparents lived on the Jeff Davis side of that river until the road was widened in the 80’s. They owned the land up to the river. My grandmother actually watched that bridge being built. It was prior to the bridge for auto travel when there was still a ferry in operation. I also lived there until I was 8 (when the road was widened). The train trestle was actually made to turn and rotate to allow larger ships passage down the river. That was one of the main reason to have someone on lookout. They also kept carrier pigeons up there and used them to communicate up and down the river.
