The Oldest Bridge in Arkansas?
Pictured above: The Old River Bridge display in the Gann Museum
Recently, in my research on the Old River Bridge, I have read that it may be the oldest bridge in Arkansas. So, today, I decided to see how our bridge ranks in the chronology of early Arkansas bridges. The Old River Bridge in Benton was completed in 1891.1 According to the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas’s entry on bridges, the oldest bridge in Arkansas is the Springfield-Des Arc Bridge, which was built over Cadron Creek in 1874. That bridge once sat on the Faulkner and Conway County line.2
While the Springfield-Des Arc Bridge was built well before the Old River Bridge, it is no longer at its original location over Cadron Creek. That bridge was moved to Lake Beaverfork Park near Conway. Robert W. Scoggin’s entry mentions one other bridge that is, rather was, older than the Old River Bridge. The Fryer’s Ford Bridge in Conway County was built in 1890 but it collapsed in 2011.3 In 1988, a report written by Lola Bennett and Corinne Smith for the Arkansas Historic Bridge Recording Project said that the Old River Bridge was the second-oldest bridge in Arkansas.4 So, which is it?
Given what I’ve found so far, the Old River Bridge is, or will be once it’s finished, the State’s oldest bridge in its original location. It is not really the oldest bridge in Arkansas. It’s not even the first bridge to be built over the Saline River because we know that William Lockhart was allowed to operate a toll bridge in that spot in 1831.5 As you’ve read before, while the bridge is being rebuilt over the river I have been working on a small exhibit on the Old River Bridge. When the Gann Museum reopens, I look forward to telling the bridge’s story to our visitors. See you there!
Citations:
Historic American Engineering Record, Old River Bridge (Saline River Bridge) HAER No. AR-406
Robert W. Scoggin, “Bridges,” CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas, https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/bridges-4208/, Date Accessed 5/25/2024.