St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 65

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1976 I 0 Mi Bridges SSf? Goldman, at the southern end of Lemay Ferry Road. The 76-foot-long bridge was built in 1872 by the House Spring, Big River Valley Macedemized and Gravel Road Co. Its president, John H. Morse, also owned Morse's Mill, the remains of which can be seen today.

The bridge was proposed on May 28, 1872. Only a month and a half later, on July 16, it was inspected and accepted by officials of Jefferson County. Unlike Union bridge, Sandy Creek bridge has some iron in its construction. The main structure is a Howe truss design of white pine timbers built to withstand a load of 70 tons. To protect the wood, all exposed surfaces See BRIDGES, Page 4 By JAMES E.

KELLER Illinois contractor, Joseph C. Elliott, and his son, William B. Elliott. They built three other covered bridges in Monroe County between 1856 and 1871, but all except the Union bridge have been destroyed. On April 8, 1870, the Monroe County Court ordered Union bridge built across the Elk Fork near Union Church, where the road from Paris to Fayette crossed the stream.

Locally quarried limestone was hauled in for the buttresses at each end of the bridge. The blocks of stone were cut and laid with no mortar to bind them. They were held together solely by their weight and shape. Wood from local trees was cut by hand for the span itself. Not a single piece of metal went into the bridge.

The joists, trusses, planking, sides and roof were all fastened together with wooden pins called trunnels. The work was completed Sept. 7, 1871, and for it the Elliotts were paid $5500. Restoration in 1968 cost $25,000. Union bridge was closed to traffic in April 1970 after it was damaged by a heavy load.

The damage was probably caused by a truck detouring around the nearby low-water bridge, which was covered by spring flooding of the Elk Fork. Pedestrians may still cross the bridge. Sandy Creek covered bridge is in Jefferson County about six miles north of Hillsboro and just a few hundred yards from the small community of THE flood began around Moberly. Nine inches of rain turned ditches into deluges, the Elk Fork of the Salt River into a mass of muddy water wider than the Mississippi. Southwest of Paris, 25 miles to the east of Moberly, the Elk Fork was three quarters of a mile wide.

The water rose two feet over the floor of the Union covered bridge, threatening to take the wooden beams downstream to the Mississippi along with broken trees, wooden crates, milk cartons and debris from backyards along the riverbank. The 125-foot-long span shuddered. Its beams, made entirely of wood nearly a hundred years earlier, were under heavy stress. Then lower sections of the siding collapsed and floated away. It was as though the sails had been blown off an old sailing ship.

The river could flow through the bridge. The strain was lessened. Union covered bridge would survive. Five miles farther downstream, another covered bridge was not so lucky. About 11:30 p.m.

that Sunday night, July 9, 1967, the Mexico covered bridge was carried away by the torrent despite efforts to save it. Missouri was left with only five covered bridges. At one time, there had been five covered bridges in the area around Paris alone. Now there was only one. Parts of the Mexico covered bridge were recovered by employes of the state parks department and used to rebuild the Union covered bridge.

Both had been built in the mid-1800s by an i I 1 'I Iff TrfY -J'A ij; ff.ji I i A A view of the Locust Creek bridge. Trunnels on the Union bridge. 1 load. Union bridge was closed f-, I Noah's Ark covered bridge was to traffic after it was damaged by 1 named after Platte County judge a truck carrying an over-heavy i i v. Noah Beery.

The Burfordville ''A bridge in a picture taken from uiV, is. the adjoining mill. L' a load of 70 tons. Mi! ft I I CI The Locust Creek bridge has no road, no creek under it. The Sandy Creek bridge was designed to carry.