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VJU.HV! s i\oie: mis is the second in a series about Tapp's Ford Bridge by local writer Don Audette
By Don Audette
Special to the Rappahannock News
Tapps Ford Bridge, fabricated in 1882, had a few adventures before ending up in Rappahannock County carrying Route 645 across the Rappahannock River to Fauquier County. Originally, the span was one of three in a bridge crossing the Rapidan River at Madison Mills in Orange County. It carried an old Piedmont-Fredericksburg trade route. But before the bridge was built there was a ford, and something needs to be said about fords to appreciate how lucky we are not to have to deal with them today.
Fords
In the old days, rudimentary roads simply led down to the edge of a stream. Animals, people, and travelers on horseback, or with wagons or coaches, made their way through the water to the other side as best they could. It was a risky business. A story in the Culpeper Exponent of January 20, 1882, tells of a new bride and her husband crossing a ford in a two-horse wagon. "When near the middle of the river they were washed by a dangerous current from the ford and down the dangerous stream." The husband lost his common sense, tried to leap into the river, but his bride, "caught him by one hand and with the other guided the horses to a point near the shore, where the wagon hung up." She then leaped into the stream, swam ashore, and walked a mile for help to save her half-drowned and half-frozen husband. Would a woman do that today for her man?
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