Fording the creek: The Swinging Bridge
Slate Creek and its tributaries wind through Bath and surrounding counties; meandering between crops and fields until it spills into the Licking River at Wyoming. There are many fordable areas of Slate Creek, where folks can cross without much effort unless the creek is running high. For some people in the days before modern roads, fording Slate Creek to even
get home was a task during the rainy seasons.
When we think of a suspension bridge, we envision great bridges like the Golden Gate Bridge or Maysville’s Simon Kenton Bridge, with large center towers and cables stretched at great distances. Along Slate Creek and other waters in and near Bath County, there are suspension bridges along the waterway, just in simpler form.
Commonly called a swinging bridge, a simple suspension bridge isn’t much more than cables stretched to anchors on each shoreline, with a plank floor usually only wide enough for a person to walk across it. These bridges aren’t for the faint of heart or acrophobic; once a person gets into the span of the bridge, the natural sway gives a feeling of weightlessness and little control. Most of the walkways are several feet above the water below and can make a person dizzy if the water is at a high level and rushing underneath it.
I’ve talked to several older citizens who vividly recall crossing creeks via a swinging bridge. One bridge that has since been removed was across Naylor Creek and went to the old school that once stood on the Pendleton farm. The bridge was in the sharp left hand curve of Naylor Road and anchored by trees on each side of the creek. I still remember seeing the remains of the bridge as a kid, but disrepair and record flooding finally brought the walkway down forever within the last thirty or so years.
Another bridge spanned Slate Creek just down from what’s called Blue Rock near Anderson Road. A deep hole of water lay beneath the planks and cables that crossed into the fields. As a kid, my family and I would spend time swimming in the hole of water and braving the old rickety swinging bridge; a kind of rite of passage for my sister’s friends who sometimes joined us. A couple of teenage boys who would come with us on occasion took bravery another step when they would get on the bridge and jump off into the deep water below. The flood in 1997 damaged that swinging bridge and it was never used again. Two more devastating floods finished it off, tearing the plank floor away and leaving the cables hanging into Slate Creek before they were removed finally around 2010.
Closer to Owingsville, there is another swinging bridge that until recently was accessible and could be traversed. The bridge is just off U.S. 60 on Stepstone Road. It accessed the farm across Slate Creek and is supported by thick steel cables and large anchor posts. There were no trespassing signs on the bridge for years, but were largely ignored. In fact, all the swinging bridges were and are privately owned and one should always get permission before exploring. Recent floods have damaged the swinging bridge at Stepstone and it is now impassible and in danger of collapsing.
The best preserved swinging bridge I’ve personally seen in Bath County is at Wyoming. It spans Slate Creek just down from the mouth of White Oak Creek and just upstream from Licking River. Someone has recently restored the plank flooring and the cables and under wire supports are in remarkable shape. I’m not sure when exactly this bridge was originally built (perhaps a reader can shed some light on this?) but it has been there as long as I can remember and has been well traveled by the property owners and people passing by over the years.
On a recent exploration at the Old Republican Meeting House site, I found some twisted iron cables embedded in a large sycamore tree next to Flat Creek at a shallow flat in the water. While no other evidence remains, I’m fairly certain this was another swinging bridge support or ferry cable of some type. A little way down stream, there is a more recent steel cable tangled into some old tree roots, also indicating a swinging bridge location. This suspicion was confirmed when I stumbled on a site that shows old aerial photos of Bath County. In 1981, a very clear aerial picture was taken of a farm in the area I was in and sure enough, there was a swinging bridge across Flat Creek. My guess on the old iron cable is that it was maybe used to access the Old Republican Meeting House that once sat along the creek bank, but that is yet to be known for sure.
The swinging bridges are slowly going into history as the covered bridges have. Modern bridges have taken the place of both of these treasures for the most part, but the ones that survive hold a special feel of nostalgia. For the readers who have fond memories of walking on an old swinging bridge for necessity or leisure, it is truly something to experience.
