Photo of The Month – Aug 2004

Old Iron Bridge

Picture contributor: Carolyn Greene Waters

It was Cliffside’s first bridge. Its supports were iron but the guard rails on either end and the roadway were of wood. The two men in the picture are approaching town from River Street. It’s a rare photo that shows some of the houses that once lined the river at the south end of the mill (look to the right of the waterfall). There were only a few autos in town at this point so probably the bridge was used by more pedestrians than cars. The tracks indicate the streets on either end of the bridge were unpaved. Can’t you hear the rumbling these boards must have made as the flivvers tootled slowly across? This bridge was situated much closer to the mill than ones that later replaced it, and so its north end was very near the bottom end of the row of warehouses that lined the road leading from the square. So, southbound traffic would drive down the hill to the end of the warehouses and have to make a sharp right turn to get onto the bridge. For other views of the bridge go here and here.

Another treasure from that old cigar box of Blanche Edwards Campbell.