Harrison Stone
Bridge--Greenwood County
Harrison Stone
Bridge--Greenwood County
Location: From the Jct. of Hwys. K-99 and K-96 near Severy, go West on K-96 7 miles. Turn North on County road 4 miles. Turn West and travel 1 mile then South 1/4 to bridge. See contact below for detailed map.
Contact: Greenwood County Historical Society, 120 W. 4th, Eureka, KS 67045 Phone: 316/583-6682
Nearest Towns:
Severy, Eureka
The
Harrison Bridge in southwest Greenwood county is a beauty!
These stone bridges are rapidly disappearing, and photographing them is a race
against time--before the next flash flood or road improvement project erases
their beautiful reflections forever.
Stone bridge builders of this period experimented with different construction methods. In this bridge, the arches are made of cement, while the exterior walls were made of native stone. This is one of the longer stone arch bridges still standing in Kansas, and is listed on the Kansas Register of Historic Places.
The old bridge was constructed in 1908 at a cost of $1977.00. This was at the very dawn of the automobile age, yet here it still stands, a veteran of floods, wrecks and the ravages of time. It bears mute testament to a time before automobiles, before the oil boom in Greenwood County--and it's subsequent bust, and before bridges became boring. Seasons come and go, but the bridge remains--for now at least.
Located on a curve, a missing banister stone makes it clear there's been at least one wreck on the one lane bridge--it's width only designed to let two horse-drawn buggies pass. What is it about this impractical old fossil of a time long past and mostly forgotten that so intrigues the Flatlander ? Is it the way the waters of Otter Creek catch the reflection.... or the way the curved arches draw the eye.... or is it the fact we can never really own beauty, only appreciate it . Whatever it is that's so captivating about this old bridge, I don't want to figure it out. That would only break the spell .