The next stop on the tour, paying tribute to David Backlin, is to the town of Mount Olive in Jefferson County, Alabama. With a population of 4071 inhabitants, the town is the birth place of Hank Williams Sr., one of the legends of country music and whose legacy is being carried on by his son Hank Jr. and grandson Hank III.
Mount Olive has many legends and stories and this bridge combines both. The Buck Short Bridge was a multiple-span bridge featuring a series of steel pony girder spans and a Parker through truss main span. The bridge spanned Locust Fork River on Mount Olive Road and has a total length of 603 feet; the Parker through truss span was 238 feet. The bridge was famous for it was named after another Mount Olive celebrity, yet it was one of a few bridges that had been moved around more than two times during its structural lifetime. A local website features some information about this bridge:
Information:
“The Frank A. Hewitt Bridge (also called Buckshort Bridge, Buck Short Bridge or the Locust Fork River Bridge (AL 12678) is a riveted steel truss bridge carrying Mount Olive Road (Jefferson County Road 77) over the Locust Fork of the Warrior River just above White’s Creek, north of Mount Olive and west of Morris. The bridge’s primary span is 238 feet, while the total length of the bridge deck is about 600 feet.
The bridge was dedicated in 1955 in honor of Frank Hewitt, a former member of the Jefferson County Board of Revenue and Jefferson County Treasurer who died in 1943.
In 1982 the Jefferson County Public Works Department estimated that it would cost $1.3 million to repair deteriorating supports under the bridge. An alternative plan, to move the superstructure to new supports constructed a few feet away and reroute the approaches, cost about $520,000. The move was made in July of that year.
In 2016, construction began on a new bridge to replace the 1955 structure. The new bridge was completed and opened to traffic in August 2018. The new bridge was constructed just upstream of the old bridge. It is also wider, with 12-foot wide lanes and 10-foot shoulders, providing a 44-foot driving surface, versus the 28-foot width of the old bridge. The old bridge was subsequently demolished and removed from the site.”
Source: https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Frank_Hewitt_Bridge
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David Backlin photographed this structure in 2016, at the time of its replacement, yet Ben Tate did a detailed series on the bridge, which included some close-ups. They were available via bridgehunter.com before it went down due to reconstruction. Yet, the Website Archives saved the page and can be linked here.
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The Bridgehunter's Chronicles 