No arguments scheduled by the Supreme Court of Kentucky for July 2015.
The Silver Bridge was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, over the Ohio River.
The Silver Bridge was an eyebar-chain suspension bridge built in 1928 and named for the color of its aluminum paint. The bridge connected Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio, over the Ohio River.
On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed while it was full of rush-hour traffic, resulting in the deaths of 46 people. Two of the victims were never found. Investigation of the wreckage pointed to the cause of the collapse being the failure of a singleeyebar in a suspension chain, due to a small defect 0.1 inch (2.5 mm) deep. Analysis showed that the bridge was carrying much heavier loads than it had originally been designed for and had been poorly maintained.
The collapsed bridge was replaced by the Silver Memorial Bridge, which was completed in 1969.
This was the bridge that collapsed in my home town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia when I was just 14 years old. The bridge was a centerpiece of the downtown, just three blocks from where we lived on top of my dad’s funeral home. There were stop lights on each side of the bridge which would cause traffic to back up. It was Christmas rush, and it was dark. On our side, at the intersection was the County Courthouse, a hardware store, a gas station and the state liquor store (as best I remember).
Mason County Courthouse, West Virginia. Built for $750,000 in 1957.
I thought the courthouse was cool, both literally since it had air conditioning, and figuratively since it was the biggest building around and housed the library with Mrs. Burdette (I think) who was kind enough to allow me to sit in the stacks and read but had a firm but merciful hand on my overdue books). We now take ice cold water fountains at normal height and elevators for granted, but to an eight year old back in 1961 who stole most of his drinks when playing from the neighbor’s hoses, the double cool down of water and the AC was heaven on earth.
Polio may be a distant, if not non-existent, memory to most today. I can tell you the day I got my oral vaccine felt like the crowning of the king. Unlike Mary Poppins’ spoonful of sugar, we had a cube of sugar with drops of vaccine. I want to say it had a blue tint, but I now know years later my color vision was not the best (or so says my wife who picks out my colors when I venture beyond khaki’s and a blue oxfort shirt).
I remember the courthouse bell chiming at the alotted time, the locals, including me with my parents and brothers, lining up at the steps of the courthouse facing sixth street.ine was distributed, the local health department dispensed it from the wide set of steps on the Sixth Street side, and it felt like we were all going to communion to go up the steps which to a kid looked like they went to the top of the sky and when I reached the top I was given a sugar cube with the vaccine drops on it. This was cool, and I had no clue.
I always thought it had two floors, but when I look at a picture, I see three floors. Funny how one’s mind works when you are just a few feet tall. And those steps that went to the sky? Well, I counted about 9 or 10 of those in a picture, but they stretched far and wide as I stood looking up.
The courtroom had lots of wood. Brown and dark. Probably walnut, but for me it was magnificent and dark.
Across Sixth Street were law offices lined up from end to end.
I passed the bridge and the courthouse every school day on my way to Central School on the corner of Sixth Street and Viand Street with Office Rice always stopping traffic for me and a few others who walked to school.
