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By Don Audette
Special to the Rappahannock News
During October of this year, Tapp’s Ford Bridge was dismantled, ready to be cut up for scrap, to disappear off the face of the earth. It had begun its life brand new in November 1882. It was part of a three-span, single-lane, iron truss bridge across the Rapidan River at Madison Mills in Orange County. When that bridge was replaced by a new, two-lane modem bridge in 1934 (no longer in existence), the three spans were split up and scattered to three different counties. Eventually, one of those spans made its way to Rappahannock County to serve as Tapp’s Ford Bridge. It took a long time to get here and it has been difficult to trace its travels.
First off, though, it is known that the old bridge sat at Madison Mills for some time, only 150 feet away from its 1934 replacement bridge. And as early as August 1933, the Orange County Board of Supervisors had their eye on it. At their meeting that month, they requested that when the Virginia State Highway Department abandoned the bridge, part of it would be used across the Rapidan River at Wilhoit’s Ford, and, according to a local newspaper account, the rest was to be used across another local ford. People knew that old truss bridges, with all their nuts, bolts, tumbuckles, and pieces and parts, could be taken apart like an erector set and rebuilt elsewhere. In October 1933, Madison County joined in the effort with its Board of Supervisors supporting the Wilhoit’s Ford move. But when the Orange County Board learned that it would cost $8,000 to move the bridge, they lost interest, rescinded their Wilhoit’s Ford request, and asked that the bridge be put across yet another local ford.
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