Butler County Bridge Tour--Bridge #8

From Bridge #7, continue on 200th Street for about 1/2 mile to Cheyenne Road and turn South (right) and drive to 210th Street.   Turn East (left) onto 210th, and follow it 4 miles to Haverhill Road.  Turn North (left) onto Haverhill Road, and follow it to Hwy. US-400/96 which is about 10 1/2 miles.  Turn East (right) onto US-400, and drive about 16 miles to Gray Road which turns off the highway just East of the Railroad overpass.  Follow Gray Road a short distance, then turn off at the gravel stockpile and follow old Hwy 96 to Bridge #8. 

Built in 1935, this bridge is of "art deco" design which was quite popular during this period.  Everything from toilets to radio knobs to Hover Dam were styled in this distinctive manner. 

"Haul it on the Frisco" used to be a familiar sales slogan, but now it's just a memory; fading like a train's whistle retreating in the distance.  Today, weeds grow between the rusty steel rails that helped build a nation.  Once these ribbons of iron carried freight and passengers--but times have changed.  The private automobile and commercial aviation have replaced the passenger train, and trucks handle much of the freight.  Still, there's nothing as forlorn as an abandoned railroad.  It's a link to our past which is rapidly disappearing.  The bridge was built as an overpass of Highway 96, the same road which would one day make these rails obsolete.

Proceed to Bridge #9.

BACK TO INDEX