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South portal Photos taken July 2005 by David Backlin |
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North portal |
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Main span |
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Oblique view |
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North approach |
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Center pier |
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Portal bracing |
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Looking overhead |
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Behind portal |
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Under approach |
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Under main span |
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Lower joint |
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Upper joint |
The Joplin Globe reported on June 29, that the Powell Bridge has been saved from destruction. As soon as a new bridge can be built downstream, the old bridge will be converted into a pedestrian bridge.
Such a shame that they can't just rehabilitate and save a beautiful structure like this. This bridge stood out to me above most of the others on this site...partly due to its striking similarities to the long-closed Tilley Bridge on my own site. Every day it angers and disappoints me that they continue to demolish and close these structures rather than restoring them and keeping them in use. These are small lightly traveled local roads, and I do not understand why we have to constantly replace everything interesting and enjoyable with something else ugly, boring and utilitarian. It clearly shows what our leaders think of their communities and the population as a whole.
I have lived just a few hundred feet from this bridge for the last 40 years and there is nothing like the charm that this quaint old bridge presents. I have crossed it thousands of times and at no time did I feel unsafe. It has been a part of the lives of my children and grandchildren for their entire lives. When my kids were young, they fished from it, as my grandkids have just this last summer. My son had some of his senior pictures taken on the old bridge. My late husband and I used to walk to the old bridge and just stand, holding hands, looking down into the water, watching the fish swim around. It is too bad that more people haven't had such a wonderful old bridge to look at and enjoy for as many years as I have this one.
