End of Parshallburg Bridge?

Some of you may remember the Parshallburg Bridge, which stood along the riverbank in Chesaning's Cole Park where we held some of our Family Reunions. It eventually was placed across the river below the dam as a pedestrian bridge, the entire project cost about $1.4 million dollars. While living in Chesaning, we would often walk down to the bridge, watch the river waters, and just relax.

From the Saginaw News on December 29, 2008.

The single-lane iron bridge stood on the banks of the Shiawassee River in Parshallburg for 109 years. It lasted nine years in Chesaning's Cole Park. Ice floes on the swollen river Sunday morning struck the footbridge, pushing it half off its base.
Just after 2 p.m., the bridge -- on the National Register of Historic Places -- succumbed to the relentless pressure of rushing water and ice and slid into the river, where it floated about 20 yards downstream in seconds and halted against a stand of trees on an island.
Witnesses called it ''the new St. Charles bridge'' as it went.
Photography was still young in 1889, when workers used the ''Thacker'' method to assemble the trusses on the bridge. Sunday afternoon, nearly all the 25 to 30 people watching from the banks held up cell phones to take pictures as the bridge slid. A few videoed the event.

Here is a link to one of those videos, such a sad event!

http://videos.mlive.com/saginawnews/2008/12/parshallburg_bridge_floats.html



Here is a picture of it today.