In a fit of bodily unawareness, I was probably not two miles outside of Gallipolis when I realized I needed to use a restroom. Luckily I immediately found a little rest area with bathroom facilities just north of Kanauga.
Next to the bathrooms was this thing. The thing being an eye-bar from the Silver Bridge, which collapsed on December 15th, 1967, killing 46 people. Instead of using twisted wires for suspension cables the Silver Bridge used a suspension chain. The eye-bars linked segments of the chain together. The cause of the collapse was determined to be a crack, one-tenth of an inch deep, in one of the eye-bars near the top of the tower on the Ohio side. The bridge collapsed about a minute after the link broke. There are a couple of country songs that explain the disaster better than I can.
At least, that's what the engineering report would have you believe. Some locals believe the collapse was from a sonic boom generated by the Mothman, not the dude from The Watchmen, but a twelve-foot high mothman, that had been terrifying people on the West Virginia side for a year before the bridge disaster. There is a statue, museum and festival for the Mothman in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, which seems like as good a reason as any to return to the Ohio Valley someday, perhaps next September.
Wow. I saw that movie.
Posted by: Marie Carnes | 06 April 2009 at 01:51 AM
Was it any good? I vaguely remember hearing about it.
Posted by: Joe | 06 April 2009 at 04:44 PM
Gallipolis is a freakishly interesting place, isn't it?
Posted by: Cheryl | 06 April 2009 at 07:10 PM
It just goes to show that if you dig deep enough, every place has a story to tell. Did you happen to see the conversation Dane and I were having about corrupt Portsmouth on Flickr? These old river towns have layers and layers of history, politics, ambitions etc. intersecting.
Posted by: Joe | 06 April 2009 at 09:51 PM
Your bathroom break was fortuitously timed, apparently. You would have missed this bit of history otherwise. Someday I may hit you up for the exact location of this.
Posted by: Dane | 06 April 2009 at 10:17 PM
Head north out of Gallipolis on Rt 7. The Kanauga Drive-In will be on your left. The rest stop is just a little further up the road on the right. I am seriously considering going to the Mothman festival in September.
Posted by: Joe | 07 April 2009 at 08:05 AM
Maybe I missed the point. I took it that while the town thought the Mothman was bad, it was actually a good entity. He didn't cause the bridge to collapse. Instead, he caused the Richard Gere character to save some people who went into the river in their cars. I wouldn't go out and rent the movie, but if it happened to be on TV and nothing else was on, I'd say to watch it. However, seeing this part of the bridge and hearing your story makes me like it better.
P.S. In a minor bout of dyslexia, every time you say Gallipolis, I think you're saying Galapagos.
Posted by: Marie Carnes | 08 April 2009 at 12:08 AM