BRIDGES PAST AND PRESENT AND A FEW THINGS IN BETWEEN

When I left home this morning, I had absolutely no idea where I was going, but I knew I was going to have a good day. Any day that I can spend traveling the back roads with my camera is a good day.  About an hour and a half after leaving home I ended up in Paint Bank, Virginia. Now you don’t just drop by Paint Bank, Virginia, you have to make an effort to get there. By the time you make the hour long trek from Salem, across two mountains you are ready for a break when you pull into the Paint Bank General Store.  The unassuming store on the side of Route 311 is also home to the Swinging Bride Restaurant. I had left home before breakfast and I was hungry so I decided to have breakfast.  If you want good ole down home southern cooking, then the Swing Bridge Restaurant the place to go. Any meal is a treat at the Swinging Bridge but I am partial to their breakfast.  A meal at the Swinging Bridge is well worth the effort it takes to get here.

If you want to stay and enjoy the scenery then you can stay at the Depot Lodge located right across the street from the General Store.  Housed in the old Norfolk and Western Depot that was built in 1909 along the railroads Potts Valley Branch, the Depot Lodge features 4-guest rooms for travelers who want to enjoy the peace and solitude of Pott Valley.  For those that want to enjoy a longer stay, the Section Foreman’s Cottage which was built in 1910 is located right next door.  It features two bedrooms, gas fireplace, living room, dining room and full kitchen.

After having a great breakfast it was time to continue my journey across Potts Mountain and into West Virginia and to the Valley of the Sweet Springs.

The Old Sweet Springs Inn in Sweet Springs, West Virginia open as a resort in 1839. Built to take advantage of the natural mineral springs of the area, the 110,000 square foot hotel has  5-presidents, George Washington, James Madison, Franklin Pierce, Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore along with the Marquis de Lafayette, Queen Victoria Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.  The Resort closed in the 1930’s and the elegant hotel was turned into a tuberculosis sanitarium in 1941 and finally was a home of the aged from 1945 until it closed for good in 1993.  As I walk around I wonder what it would have been like to stroll the grounds back in the day when presidents were enjoying the elegance of this historic resort.  Today the stately old hotel still stands proudly beside of Route 311, abandoned and unattended.

From Sweet Springs it was back on Route 311 to the tine resort town of White Sulphur Springs.  Unlike the abandoned Sweet Spring Resort, The historic Greenbrier Resort is thriving. With its elegant accommodations, casino for the guests and world class golf course, the famed White Lady is a jewel of the Greenbrier Valley.  I did make a quick stop at the Greenbrier and it was already obvious that plans were well underway for the upcoming stop on the PGA tour, The “Greenbrier Classic.”

Staying off of the interstate I decided to stay on Route 60 and just piddle along and I am glad that I did as just west of Lewisburg I saw a sign for the Herns Mill Covered Bridge.  I am a sucker for history and these old covered bridge are getting rare and people these days seems to be satisfied to let them pass into history.  About a mile and a half down a narrow country road I found the bridge which was built in 1884.  While I was walking around taking some photos, a local farmer came by on his tractor and stopped to talk with me and a couple from Connecticut who had followed me down the road off of Route 60.

 

For the next 30-minutes we passed the time talking to our new farmer friend about the history of the bridge.  He explained that it was a Queen post truss and was about 10 and a half feet wide and 53-feet long. The bridge gets its name from S. S .Herns Mill that once operated nearby.  The bridge was built to provide access to the mill for locale residents. The bridge has been reinforced and is still handling vehicle traffic today. 

A few miles after returning to Route 60, I stumbled on another “sign” from the past. An old Mail Pouch Barn, sits off the road proclaiming “Chew Mail Pouch.” Mail Pouch Barns first appeared on the landscape in the 1890’s. Many of the barns were painted by Harley Warrick who traveled about with the paint in the back of his pickup truck, taking an average of 6-hours to paint each barn.  Harley said that he always started with the letter “E” in chew and would work from there.  Harley once told Charles Kuralt that he every once in a while he would misspell a word on purpose just to see if folks would actually pay attention. A common misspelling he said would be an extra “B” in tobacco. Harley Warrick died in 2000 and with him died the advertising art of “Chew Mail Pouch.”

After stopping on the side of Route 60 for a few Mail Pouch Photos, I continued west on 60 through the towns of Rupert and Rainelle before arriving at the New River Gorge Bridge. The 3,030 foot long steel arch bridge spans the New River Gorge in Fayette County, West Virginia. For many years it was the longest steel arch bridge in the world, and is the third highest bridge in the world. The Bridge opened in 1977 and each October it is closed to vehicle traffic for the annual Bridge Day, where base jumpers from around the world come and jump off the bridge parachuting into the river 876 feet below.

After spending about an hour and a half at the New River Gorge Bridge the sun was getting low in the western sky and it was time to head home. Opting to expedite my departure I picked up the West Virginia Turnpike in Beckley and 90-minutes later I arrived back home. Another enjoyable day trip has come to an end.