Nestled in Eastern Kentucky, within the Appalachian mountains, Clay County holds tight to its traditional swinging bridges.
There are a dozen swinging bridges in Clay County. About half are still passable. We went deep into the mountains to find them.
Our tour started in Manchester, Kentucky, where I’d hoped to find a map of all the swinging bridges. Alas, the tourism office was closed, but a helpful young man at the local library printed a set of directions for me. The driving directions were a bit vague, with instructions like, “go down about 6 miles,” and “across from the oil company,” and “if you see mile marker 13, you missed it.”
Goose Creek Swinging Bridge was the easiest to find. It was right in downtown Manchester.
A swinging bridge is anchored by tall towers on each bank with cables strung between. The deck can be made of anything, as we found out. And, yes, they swing and bounce a lot when you walk across. Sometimes uncomfortably so.
Frazier Road Swinging Bridge connected two remote farm fields. I don’t know why this particular location was important enough to merit a bridge. There’s virtually no history of these bridges to be found, and we didn’t see any locals to ask.
Old Homeplace Swinging Bridge was terrifying. Really high and the walking deck was old chicken wire that didn’t look like it could bear any weight at all. A big Hell No to crossing this one!
OBI Swinging Bridge was on a college campus. We needed a visitor pass to enter, but the campus guard was very accommodating. This bridge was well maintained, quite sturdy, and used daily by staff. No worries here.
Some distance away we found Rocky Branch Swinging Bridge. Remote and isolated along a branch of the Kentucky River, it was the prettiest location of the day. I almost made it across this one, but the boards in the middle looked sketchy and creaked awful noises. Turned around halfway and drove to the other side, safely.
We planned to visit one more swinging bridge, but our navigation system decided to switch into Sherpa Mode. It sent us down an 18 mile crawl through every hoot and holler between mountains. The paved road turned into gravel, then dirt. Houses got scarcer. Two rogue dogs stood defiantly in the road and dared us to pass, then bit the tires until we crossed some invisible boundary. By the time we emerged back on a known highway, the late afternoon light had dimmed behind the cliffs.
Touring the Swinging Bridges of Clay County was a lovely excuse to wander in the mountains for a day. Beautiful countryside. Highly recommended. Just watch out for those dogs!
2 comments
You discovered another wonderful place to explore. Brava👏👏👏
Wow! I’d never heard of these before though my mind did pull up the part in ROMANCING THE STONE where Joan Wilder is feeling her way across an ancient wooden (with not much wood in place) bridge in the wilds of Columbia and ends up grabbing a vine when the footing snaps and falls far, far, far below into the river and inadvertently swings across the gap to escape the rogue police shooting at her and Jack Colter who is stuck with a not as helpful vine since it smacks him into the cliff face. Yep, you would get me on any of these picturesque (and probably haunting on a cloudy day) bridges. I am not the heroines of which I write!