Streep and Eastwood at Rossman Bridge in Madison County. Warner Brothers photo

Jefferson County’s Sandy Creek Covered Bridge near Hillsboro twins the Rossman Bridge in Madison County, Iowa, as a setting for encounters between a farm wife and a freelance photographer who become lovers in a powerful movie romance starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.

The best-selling novel by Robert James Waller captured readers’ hearts around the world making Jefferson County’s Sandy Creek Bridge a getaway place for local folks to meet for picnics, photography sessions, slow walks, long talks, rendezvous, and stolen kisses.

Sandy Creek Bridge was a site accommodating all of those activities more than a century before the novel appeared in 1992, the movie  in 1995, and ever since that local bridge was built in 1872. And it still is.

It was built to allow passage from the Jefferson County seat of Hillsboro to villages that would be incorporated as the City of Arnold 100 years later, and also to St. Louis.

Sandy Creek Covered Bridge. Missouri State Parks photo

The Missouri State Parks Department says, “Sandy Creek Bridge boasts the picture-perfect appearance of an old red barn…Three of the four remaining covered bridges in Missouri (which once numbered about 30) were built using the Howe-truss design, including Sandy Creek, Burfordville and Locust Creek covered bridges…It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.”

For Arnold residents, it’s fun to picnic at Sandy Creek or getaway weekends to visit Missouri’s historic covered bridges in other counties. Covered timber truss bridges can last up to a century before much work is required while uncovered wooden bridges usually last maybe twenty years before needing repair, replacement or demolition. Covered bridges are romantic indeed but rare – only about 1,400 exist worldwide.

Most bridges in Jefferson County are about more than enjoying afternoon strolls and moonlit walks. They are about railroad companies that built them starting in the 1850s; Civil War soldiers that destroyed them; and vehicles that today drive over local bridges day and night. For example, in 1883, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (PPG) opened a glass manufacturing plant in Crystal City, employing hundreds of people, and built a riveted metal bridge across a creek to a sand mine. The PPG property remains empty since closing in 1992 yet that restricted PPG bridge still stands. Right now, there are approximately 167 bridges in Jefferson County. Current bridge building and repair project information is shown at https://www.jeffcomo.org/160/Projects.

Civil War

During the Civil War, a three-tiered suspension bridge was built by U.S. Army engineers over the Meramec River near the site of today’s Arnold City Park. One of the first three-tiered suspension bridges ever constructed, its purpose was to allow Union troops from Jefferson Barracks to reach Confederate encampments in Jefferson County and throughout Missouri. The bridge also was crossed by notorious “Bushwhackers” and “Jayhawkers” galloping through Jefferson County to conduct brutal guerilla warfare.

Confederate Brigadier General Jeff Thompson was called the Swamp Fox during Civil War in Missouri. Public Domain photo

Just before that war, railroad companies had started building bridges for transporting iron ore, lumber, livestock, people and troops. One Confederate Army objective in Missouri was to burn every railroad bridge from St. Louis to Pilot Knob in Iron County.

Confederate General M. Jeff Thompson, called “The Swamp Fox,” led a cavalry attack to the Iron Mountain Railroad Bridge over the Big River in Jefferson County near De Soto October 15, 1861, capturing 50  Union soldiers, burning the bridge, then escaping with his troopers, who were called “Swamp Rats.” That event was the only real battle in Jefferson County during the Civil War, though many skirmishes occurred near local hamlets.

Today, six historic iron and steel bridges in Jefferson County still stand. Photos of those six historic bridges are shown on the website www.HistoricBridges.org managed by webmaster Nathan Holth, who lives in Port Huron, Michigan. Historic Jefferson County bridges that Mr. Holth’s site features are:

• Byrnesville Bridge
• Crystal City Underground Bridge (PPG)
• MO-21 Meramec River Bridge
• Morse Mill Road Bridge
• Windsor Harbor Bridge
• Windsor Harbor Railroad Bridge.

The MO-21 Meramec River Bridge, also known as the Tesson Ferry Road Bridge, was built in 1940 and renovated in 2009. HistoricBridges.org reports: “This is a bridge of unusual design and was reportedly the first of its kind in the United States.

“The unusual design of the Meramec River Bridge was the result of a desire for a particularly beautiful bridge at this location which was traditionally part of a route to recreational areas for St. Louis area residents. Designed by the Missouri State Highway Department…The bridge today retains good historic integrity. It remains today as a striking, aesthetically pleasing bridge and, as the first of its kind in the country, enjoys high levels of historical significance.”

In an interview, Nathan Holth explains why he is so enthusiastic about bridges and how he chooses them for to taking photos that will appear on his website:

“I grew up in Port Huron, Michigan which at the time had a variety of interesting bridges but began to lose that population to bridge replacement. In terms of photography, we prioritize bridges that are at risk for demolition or collapse, or otherwise not preserved, as well as bridges with high levels of historic significance.”

Windsor Harbor Bridge in Jefferson County. Photo by Nathan Holth and and Rick McOmbe Photo Copyright HistoricBridges.org.

Holth’s photo of the old Windsor Harbor Road Bridge near Kimmswick in Jefferson County shown in this article is a multi-beam fixed roadway bridge built in 1874 that is the oldest Pratt Truss bridge in Missouri. Its photo here was shot on August 28, 2021. HistoricBridges.org reports, “The oldest Pratt truss in the state, this is one of the most unique and ornate surviving examples of a rare Keystone column truss bridge.

“The bridge was originally built over the River Des Peres at Lemay Ferry in St. Louis, and was relocated to Kimmswick in 1930, and bypassed by a new bridge in 1985. Seeking to prevent demolition of this bridge and retain it for use by non-motorized traffic, the Kimmswick Historical Society took ownership of this bridge in 1985 when it was replaced. The bridge appears to have been left in place with no major changes since this time. The time for planning and seeking funding for a full restoration of this bridge is now. The bridge shows numerous indications of deterioration.”

Another website showcasing Jefferson County bridges is www.BridgeHunter.com managed by the Historic Bridge Foundation, a 501 C 3 nonprofit organization based in Austin, Texas. Its pages show, for example, the so-called Hollywood Beach Bridge in Arnold, a three-span through-truss bridge over the Meramec River originally built in 1903 for the Frisco Railroad, now run by BNSF Railway. It also shows, among others, the Joachim Creek US 61/67 Bridge that was washed over and temporarily closed by flooding in 2011. Joachim Creek is known by local fishermen as a mecca for smallmouth and spotted bass.

Kitty Henderson, executive director of Historic Bridge Foundation, says on her website, “Saving a historic bridge is frequently a complicated and time-consuming process. . . .  Federal procedures are in place to help us save bridges, but the ways these federal rules and regulations are implemented seem to vary from state to state…  Many times federal money is available. Sometimes state and/or local funds can be found.  But regardless of the money source, replacement is almost always seen as the cheaper. . . Somehow we must elevate the importance of our historic bridges in the stories that identify the communities of our nation and say, ‘This bridge is part of who we are and it must be saved.’”

Sunset Park Stone Bridge. City of Festus photo

Indeed, bridges are among the most essential aspects of infrastructure in world history and in the modern world. They connect us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. They allow us to travel to new places with hope for the future. They connect us with new avenues to explore and new possibilities. Songs about bridges – or burning them – are performed in every musical genre by artists including Adele, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Aretha Franklin, Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, The Judds, Simon and Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, the Eagles and many more.

We cross bridges when there is need within us to discover something new, to see a different place, find something we have lost or want to find again. We cross them to get somewhere fast, or to simply get out of town but never come back.

Depending on where you go and what you need, every time you cross a bridge your life will change a little, maybe a lot.