The Bridges of Greenville County

Actually, that's bridge, singular, as the red wooden structure in the photo is the last covered bridge in South Carolina. The plaque to the right of the bridge is what those brown highway signs are always promising with the tease of " HISTORICAL MARKER 1/2 Mile ". Half the time there is no such marker to be found. They are a little joke which the Highway Department plays on the old boys who shoot up half of state's posted road signs so it kind of balances out. "Signage Justice", as we like to think of it.

In this case, we did find such a marker which tells us that this bridge was built in 1909 of pine by a man named Willis, but named for a Mr. A.L. Campbell. This was a relatively minor confusion as you will see.

The bridge underwent some considerable renovations recently which is apparently why the barricades were erected. Now that it's all fixed up, you MAY NOT drive through this bridge. This, of course, was the real payoff: hours in the finding, but no crossing THIS bridge. You can't even get a decent photo with the Clemson orange striped barricades guarding the bridge. The lower one is to keep cars out and the higher one is to warn aircraft from coming through the bridge. We think that they've further dammed up Beaver Dam Creek which runs under the bridge so that fish won't knock out the pilings.

This is, of course, Greenville not Madison County. The photos were not taken by Clint Eastwood's old Nikon F film camera, but are digital. The only ashes we saw tossed from the bridge were from a lady's cigarette as she looked disapprovingly down her nose at the whole scene and left.