The Beaver Bridge in
Beaver, Arkansas
Beaver is a town in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 67. The community is located on the White River at the western limits of Table Rock Lake deep in the Ozark Mountains. Located north of Eure ...
, is a historic one-lane
suspension bridge carrying
Arkansas Highway 187
Arkansas Highway 187 (AR 187 and Hwy. 187) is a roughly three–quarter loop state highway in Carroll County, Arkansas. The route of runs from Highway 23 to US Highway 62. The highway passes over the Beaver Bridge, a 1943 suspension bridge, ...
over the
White River at
Table Rock Lake
Table Rock Lake is an artificial lake or reservoir in the Ozarks of southwestern Missouri and northwestern Arkansas in the United States. Designed, built and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the lake is impounded by Table Rock Dam ...
. Built in 1949 by the Pioneer Construction Company, the structure is the only suspension bridge open to traffic in Arkansas. The Beaver Bridge was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
in 1990.
History
The bridge was bid on December 19, 1947, to Pioneer Construction Company of
Malvern, Arkansas. The construction foreman who led the project was M. R. Blair (1914-2014), who later served as lead foreman on numerous bridge and highway projects across Arkansas, Missouri, and Tennessee, and who led the construction of numerous dams, highways and bridges throughout the southwestern United States, including the 1964
Big I
Big I is the name of the freeway interchange where Interstate 25 and Interstate 40 intersect northeast of downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Description
The Big I is a complex stack interchange located in central Albuquerque, New Mexico. ...
interchange of Interstates 25 and 40 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Remarkably, Blair and his team completed the project without the benefit of an industrial crane, using only a pickup-mounted, knuckle-boom type crane.
Since the construction was coincident with the building of
Table Rock Dam, completion was delayed until 1949 as the
required the bridge to be raised . Upon completion, the bridge remained a vital link for the citizens of Beaver until its closure for major deck rehabilitation in 1981. Further rehabilitation occurred in 2003. The bridge has a 10-ton weight limit. The bridge was temporarily closed for inspection in October 2018 after two overweight buses crossed it.
See also
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References
External links
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{{National Register of Historic Places
Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas
Historic American Engineering Record in Arkansas
National Register of Historic Places in Carroll County, Arkansas
Transportation in Carroll County, Arkansas
Steel bridges in the United States
Suspension bridges in the United States
White River (Arkansas–Missouri)
1949 establishments in Arkansas
Bridges completed in 1949