Sept 2010 Update - I hope you had an enjoyable summer. We were fortunate enough to get as far as Oklahoma in July to visit relatives that we haven't seen in far too many years. It was great getting reacquainted again. We continued down through Texas before working our way back east. I want to thank those of you who have sent pictures from your own trips. It is especially nice to see the pictures of bridges that have been restored or rehabilitated during the past few years. Many of them will be appearing on the website in the future.

During our vacation we were able to visit the new Moscow, Indiana covered bridge a few days after the second truss had been put into place. For those of you who might be in the area and see this notice in time, the dedication and opening ceremony for the bridge will be on September 25th. After our visit to Moscow, we continued eastward to attend the Ohio Historic Bridge Association's annual picnic at the Salt Creek Bridge. It was good to visit with them again. After lunch there was an interesting presentation about the National Road.

While on the road I saw a newspaper article about a group working to save the Riverside Bridge, an historic steel truss in Ozark, Missouri. The article initially got my attention when it mentioned that the bridge was built to replace a covered bridge. When I looked at the map to locate Ozark, I discovered that it wasn't too far off the path we were to follow the next day on our way to Oklahoma.

Since there isn't much information on covered bridges in Missouri and we would be in the area the next day, I contacted Kris Dyer who is heading the campaign to save the present bridge for more information. She provided this picture of the covered bridge and some information about the area. There are more pictures of both bridges and the surrounding area on the Ozark Main Street website at http://www.ozarkmainstreet.org/gallery.html. The covered bridge was adjacent to the Ozark Mill until it was destroyed by a devastating flood in 1909. Soon after, the pin-connected metal Pratt truss was built at that location. In 1922 the 13 year old bridge was relocated about a mile upstream to its current location to make room for a new wider bridge. The metal truss presently carries about 1300 vehicles per day and is being considered for replacement. If you are interested in learning more about the effort to save the metal bridge, visit the group's website at http://www.facebook.com/saveriversidebridge.