Ohio Canal Greenway Trail Bridge

Recently I took off down the highway with a vague intention of working toward Buckeye Lake. Or maybe Zanesville, where I distinctly remembered there being some pretty cool bridges. Or maybe even further, see if I could get a historic river crossing at the border with either PA or WV. Like I said, very vague intentions. I felt I would know what I was looking for when I saw it.

Turns out, I did. "Know Thyself," said some foreign dead guy.

Cruising past an exit, I saw a covered bridge at the edge of a farm field. It was right next to a modern bridge, and I thought to myself, "Perfect! I can do a post about the passage of time, and how you can't really see the progress like this anywhere."

No idea why, but I find that metal cap on the concrete fascinating.

As it turns out, the covered bridge was just over 20 years old, built as part of a rail right-of-way-to-trail project. It was still a pretty neat find, since I had to find my way back to it from the next exit. My advanced "It's back that way and I just need to find a road going that way" methods took me along Buckeye Lake and along Canal Road in Millersport--watch this space for a couple posts stemming from that adventure.

In this shot, you can see the canal on the far left, the old right of way in the center, and the field on the right. It's interesting, because you have the reason for transportation on the right--the fields have been here as long as American settlers. The canals came to move the goods grown in those fields. Canals in turn were replaced by the faster and more efficient railroads, which used the already defined and built-up right of ways of the canals in many places.

Railroads were largely replaced by the more flexible trucks, leading to more of this type of thing popping up across streams and rivers across the state. Of course, with private sector tax breaks and bailouts largely replacing infrastructure spending, there's no telling how much longer these bridges will actually be around.

Not all state money is thrown away for private gain, however--clearly the Department of Natural Resources replaced the old rail bridge with something much more hiker friendly, to ensure people can make use of their heritage in a meaningful way.

It's not hard to imagine the bridge that once spanned the gap between these substantial supports. I appreciate the fact the original structure was left in place despite the bridge not needing nearly the strength provided. The effect is two-fold: no wasted resources tearing up the existing stone and putting in new works, and you have a piece of history preserved.

The end result is pretty spiffy. It may not be an 1800's covered bridge but it does have the same simple elegance. The sun playing through the trusses was something to see, and I don't think I was quite able to capture it here as well as I'd hoped--you'll just have to check it out for yourself.