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GDOT, Keeping Georgia on the Move Georgia Department of Transportation

Construction of the
Auchumpkee Creek Bridge

Pulling the bridge into place

The pictures on this page are by Phyl Gatlin ©1997 of the Thomaston Times and are used with permission. She took the aerial photos from a cherry picker, whose shadow can be seen in a photo below. Many thanks to Phyl for letting us share these photos of a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Block and tackle

Workers prepare the anchorage point for the block and tackle

On July 3, 1997 the Auchumpkee Creek Bridge once again spanned the waterway that 3 years earlier had washed it away. Arnold Graton had used traditional construction techniques throughout the process of fabricating the walls and floor of the bridge. The wall trusses had been built flat on the ground using some salvaged material from the old bridge and held together with wooden "trunnels." Raised vertically and attached to the floor the bridge then had to be moved to its permanent location on the old bridge abutments.

Preparing to drag the bridge

Inching across the creek. The line to the horses is to the left of the workers.
Using the far abutment as an anchoring point, a block and tackle was stretched from the abutment to the bridge. The muscle was supplied by draft horses walking around a capstan, winding a rope and moving the bridge. The front end of the bridge was then dragged over the nearside abutment and onto cribbing. This cribbing and the front end would then be dragged across a temporary bridge over the creek while the back end of the bridge continued to pass over the nearside abutment. It took a total of 34 hours and several teams of draft animals (inlcuding horses, mules, and oxen) to get the bridge into place.

Draft horses bridge in place

Horses turn the capstan. Another horse takes a break in the background.

The frame in place above the abutments.

Return to the Auchumpkee Creek Bridge page.

Updated September 18, 2002. 13:16

© 2003-2007 Georgia Department of Transportation