The county's only mahogany bridge

The gravel road bridge between our two farm places will be closed for a couple of weeks while they replace it with two 96"X70' tubes. The 1/8 mile trek between the to farms will be 4 miles for awhile so I thought I'd make a temporary bridge of my own just for the golf cart so I could still scoot between the two places. I had a couple of 32' long utility poles so I dug a ramp in the bank with the loader, drug the poles across, laid eleven 36" solid doors across the poles, screwed them down and I had a bridge. The doors came from an institution for handicapped children in a nearby town. The laws told them they had to replace all the doors so these perfectly good mahogany solid core doors were going to be destroyed till my neighbor rescued them. When I got the doors he told me DO NOT BRING THEM BACK!!! LOL It leans to the west on the south end and there's a lean to the east on the north end but it's solid and that's all that matters. I put an old green finger pinching jack under the center, or close to it, to take out the bounce. There's no railing, never will be and the granddaughters love walking across it. There's practically no water flowing under it. I was told "well, well, what happens if it rains? The dirt ramp will be too muddy!" My answer to that was "if only it would rain!" Jim

A couple of the doors have signs saying "please announce your exit" Another sigh is an illustration of how to help a handicapped person get in a wheelchair, so these doors have personality.

The machine of destruction heading for the doomed bridge.


Hmm, the tubes would make a nice golf cart shed if only my feet wouldn't slide underneath it getting in and out

That's a great idea! Please tell me that you didn't dig those ramps by hand, though!? It's 92 and 90% humidity here, so just thinking about doing all that makes me sick.

Is that a county road, or township, or state?


Where I live, I think the township still has some bridges that are not built as strong as those telephone poles and doors!

To the south of me, there are 4 bridges in a row. 3 of them are 3 ton weight limit, and one is 21 ton, but the road it is on has a 10 ton weight limit and the bridge is only 12' 8" between the rails!

It's a county bridge. I don't think we have township bridges here in Iowa, or at least I haven't heard of any. The ramp was dug with the loader with me sitting in the air conditioned cab, a luxury I never had till three years ago. The doors were the 'cat's meow' for me because I didn't want to spend a lot of time on something that will be used for only two weeks. I hope it's not longer than that. The county has an easement on the drainage ditch so I don't think they will want me leaving it there any longer than that in case it floods and washes away. The chances of a flood in July are about as good as getting a snow storm in July. Jim

Jim,

I'm glad you didn't dig all that by hand, but I am are sure just mailing or screwing that thing together was way too much work for this weather!



I saw your other post. Looks like you have a lot of fond memories of it. I have been there. Times are changing, and hopefully for the best! (let's just hope, heh heh)

Think of all the memories your grandkids will have playing in the "tunnels" on this new bridge.

I really appreciate you sharing this. Glad to see that the county at least cares about their roads. Around here, the county left us high and dry. Only when Range Resources came in to drill wells, did anyone do anything about our failing bridges.


I just hope that when you take your bridge apart, those doors get another chapter in their story. I could only imagine what they have seen so far.


Every time I think about how bad I have it, I think about those who are confined to a wheelchair, or have some otherproblem, and I am glad for what I have. I have never felt better about myself than when I hear a story about someone who can't even walk.




Thanks for the pictures. I get a bit weepy thinking about spots I spent my youth, and how sad I was to see them go. I guess you can't hoard anything, but no one can ever call your own memory bank a "hoard." That's what it is, just a hoard of memories. That is the best storage area I own and no one can take it away from me. I'm so thankful.


Hope everything goes smooth!

My county would make me take that out! Seriously. Its not up to their specs and may cause blockage. Only their engineered spans are allowed

Redtom, I've thought about that too. I'm treading on thin ice doing this, but if they make me take it out I will make them put in an approved temporary bridge and how many thousands will it cost them to do that? I can get all puffed up and think of all kinds of hardships I will incur without easy access to both farms. The county guys will be here looking at the construction so I can't hide it. I do know the county engineer personally, I've even played golf with him and he and my dad are good buddies so that might help. Like they say, "it's not what you know, but who you know". Jim

Fixerupper,they don't have to do anything for you.This spring(April-June) 3 of us had to go 8Mi.to get 30 ft.during planting.Plus another bridge on the same road has been out a yr.and may be out another 1 to 2 yrs making those guys a 15-20 Mi.and some others that have to use that road a 30-40 Mi.detour because it crosses a US Limited Acess Hi-Way and they(3 landowners) own both sides of the road,so where is your hardship?

Massey maybe I came on a little strong. I will not raise a fuss with the county for a two week bridge closure. I've been waiting for this new bridge for a long time and I'm excited about something finally being done so we can get our machinery through easier. By saying I could raise a fuss I was more or less relating on how some people WOULD raise a big fuss about this just because they can. I'm not that type of guy.
The whole gist of this post about the homemade bridge is portrays how we can get off our duff and use our ingenuity to cobble something together quickly to help lessen an inconvenience that enters our lives. Jim

I don't think there's many states that have state and township roads, and no county roads.