The Other Glendale Bridge Collapses
Story
furnished
by
Clarence
Crocker
According to a brief news
article appearing in the Saturday morning Spartanburg Herald paper on
August 20, 1921, the small wooden bridge at the upper end of the
Glendale Mill pond had collapsed under the weight of a truck loaded
with cotton. It was reported that a number of men spent several hours
fishing bales of cotton out of the water. We can only presume that the
cotton was headed to Glendale Mills.
A second article appearing in
the paper on Thursday morning August 25, 1921, stated that the bridge
collapsed on Friday the 19th when a truck hauling twenty bales of
cotton was crossing over the bridge. Owned and operated by Cooper,
Griffin and Company of Greenville, S. C., the trucking firm volunteered
to pay their share of repairing the bridge.
The last article also stated
that in preparation for the bridge repair, the heavy timbers for the
structure had already been cut and hewn and would be sent to Glendale
that day. The bridge was a wooden structure for many years.
Known as the “Mud Creek
Bridge” it is located just below the old Glendale ball park on the
Spartanburg/Glendale road commonly called “The Country Club Road”. It
crosses over a small contributory branch which empties into Lawson Fork
river/pond. When the waters in the pond would rise due to heavy rains,
the pond water backed up into the contributory. I have seen the water 5
or 6 inches over the floor of the bridge.
While it was possible for two
cars to pass on the bridge, obviously it was meant to be a single lane
bridge. Numerous fender benders occurred on the bridge due to drivers
ignoring this fact. Warnings were not posted on bridges and roadways
then as now. It was, and still is, located in a curve which increases
the
danger.
One of the young men from
Glendale was crossing over the bridge when another car approached from
the other side. The young man’s hand lying in the driver’s door window
with his fingers overreaching the frame, resulted in the loss of two or
three fingers from his hand when the cars smashed against each other.
It was not until the 1950s,
after a major wreck that we were able to get the bridge updated in
structure and widened to two lanes. A few years later it was replaced
with a concrete structure which remains today and is shown in the photo
above.
This web site has been started as a
public service to share the story of Glendale. The web master and
person to contact about putting information on the web site is Mary
McKinney Teaster. Contact her at:
marylee@glendalesc.com
or by telephone at (843) 873-8117. See
more information about Mary and her Glendale connection at Mary McKinney Teaster.
