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By Don Audette
Special to the Rappahannock News
After lasting almost 123 years in three different counties, Tapp’s Ford Bridge is being replaced. The single-lane iron truss bridge across the Rappahannock River between Rappahannock and Fauquier County on Route 645 was being dismantled last week.
Maybe in our fast-paced life we should pause for a moment and pay tribute to the elegant old lady who served people well for almost a century and a quarter.
Originally fabricated in 1882, tiie Tapp’s Ford Bridge span has lasted almost three times longer than the expected life of current U.S. bridges, which according to the Federal Highway Administration is 42 years. It could still be in use today except it was not designed to handle today’s impatient drivers, nor the weight of the heavy construction trucks that, ignoring a three-ton weight limit sign, finally damaged it. Severe corrosion and metal fatigue caused VDOT to close the bridge in May 2004.
Imagine, though, things back in 1882. The talk of the day was the trial of Guiteau, who had assassinated President James Garfield the previous year, bringing the presidency to Chester A. Arthur. There were only 38 states in the United States, not 50. There was no air conditioning, no bras, cell phones, computers, or Internet. No airplanes, automobiles, or digital cameras. No dishwashers, e-mail, lawn mowers, microwave ovens, or pantyhose. No Pepsi or Coke, xerox machines, fax machines, radios, TV, or vending machines. No Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, CVS, or 7-11. You might ask, “Why get up?”
In Orange County, Virginia, in November 1882, the newly constructed bridge of three spans had just been erected across the Rapidan River at what is now known as Madison Mills. One of those three spans would eventually end up in Rappahannock County. Briefly, its journey is as follows.
The Madison Mills bridge, after considerable use, was dismantled after being replaced in 1934 by a new, Depression-era concrete bridge nearby. The old bridge’s three spans were then scattered in three different directions. One span ended up across the Hawksbill Creek outside of Luray on Route 654 near Sandy Hook. It waS swept off its piers during a very heavy rainstorm in October 1942. The span sat in the water before being again dismantled and then transported over the Blue Ridge Mountains to its current position at Tapp’s Ford. It has been used here for over half a century until it was closed last year.
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