June 1990

Site of the Doe River Bridges at Valley Forge, Tennessee

Much to see here. They are preparing the area to widen the bridge of highway 19E on the left to about 6 lanes. We are at the Doe River in Valley Forge looking back toward Elizabethton. The river here flows from left to right. There was a 2 span steel deck girder bridge here and the original highway was on the right. You can see the remains of the highway bridge. It's interesting to see how they built the highway bridge. It was a 3 arch bridge that had formed and poured concrete sides and arches that made a concrete shell to fill with dirt. They then put asphalt on top of the dirt and there was the bridge. Most of the old photos of the Valley Forge railroad bridge were made from that highway bridge. As you can see the railroad bridge was much taller than the highway which made for dramatic photos. In 1989, you could still drive over that old highway bridge, it was a frontage road for the main highway. In 1990, they widened the main highway bridge and removed and covered everything you see here. Unfortunately, the stone railroad bridge abutment disappeared along with everything else.

The west end cut stone abutment on the Elizabethton side can be seen. Notice the step where the bottom of the bridge trusses sat (where the plants are growing on the abutment). The abutment on the Hampton side of the river had already been removed when I shot this photo, except for a small section, and it was formed concrete, obviously added later.

This area has changed much over the years, first the railroad came through, then the highway in 1915, then the new main highway (not sure what year it was straightened and improved). I hate to see part of the ET vanish under the wrecking ball. When driving through here now, the widened highway bridge covers all this. One would never know that any of it had ever existed.