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Page 8 · column 4 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
aggressively competitive. Roads and bridges were being improved in surrounding counties. Railroads were in Front Royal, Culpeper, and Luray. Sperryville was the business capital of Rappahannock County and needed to modernize its transportation network to keep up with the rest of the world.
The bridge itself with one coat of paint, was shipped in 1909 by freight train from York, Pa. It arrived at the Culpeper train station of the Southern Railway Company. Back then a small crew from the bridge company traveled with a bridge and took charge of erecting the steel structure, hiring local labor as needed. One can imagine the steel pieces and parts being hauled to Sperryville, 20 miles away, by teams of horses or mules, and then moving down present day Water Street to the North Fork of the Thornton River opposite the present day entrance to Cliff Miller’s farm, Mount Vernon Private Lane.
The approaches and the abutments to the bridge should already have been in place. And likely a derrick would have been set up to swing parts into place.
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