Friday, May 25, 2012

A Moment of Local History - Merrill Bridge

Tonight, Aaron and I were about to arrive at our evening destination about 20 minutes early, when it occurred to me, that he might enjoy seeing the Merrill Bridge.

The Merrill Bridge is located in Northwestern George County (our home county) where it crosses the Pascagoula River just below where it is formed by the merging of the Leaf and Chickasawhay Rivers.

At 84 years old, the Merrill Bridge is one of the oldest span bridges in Mississippi, and has been designated an official Mississippi landmark by the state's Department of Archives and History.

One of the truly unique features of this bridge that I enjoy is the lack of concrete.  When you drive or walk across this bridge, you don't look down to concrete, you look right down to the river/river bed through the grate on which you are driving/walking.

As the bridge is only one lane, I stopped just off the bridge in case any other traffic needed to cross while Aaron and I were there.  As Aaron and I stepped onto the grated span of the bridge, Aaron instantly stopped, and just looked . . . down . . . down . . .  I assured him that while he could see way down to the river below, he would not fall.  I then asked if he was OK, and if he wanted to go out further.  He did.  Though his first several steps were quite tentative, he soon seemed quite comfortable with the near nothingness below our feet.

Of course we took pictures of the visit.  I hope there are many more visits there in the future.  It really is a unique and beautiful place.





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