Old Tugaloo - U.S. 123 Bridge, between Toccoa, GA and Westminster, SC

 

The Old Tugaloo River Bridge is a three-span bridge over the Tugaloo River between Toccoa (Stephens County), Georgia and Westminster (Oconee County), South Carolina.  It's also called the Ramsey-Jarrett Bridge, named after local nearby families whose roots date back to the 1800's.   

But at first glance, the first question that pops up is.. where's the middle span of the bridge?


In any picture of the bridge, you'll see one southern span on the Georgia side of the river, and another northern span on the South Carolina side, but the span right in the middle where the state line should be, is obviously missing.

The locals call it the Broken Bridge.


A quick history...  The Tugaloo River is the 45-mile long, middle river that forms the border between Georgia and South Carolina.  It connects the Chattooga-Tallulah Rivers upriver, to the Savannah River downstream.  Basically, there has been a bridge crossing around river mile marker 30 since the 1870's, beginning as a single-track railroad bridge for the Richmond and Danville (VA) Railroad (now the Norfolk-Southern main line between Washington D.C. and Atlanta).


When a new double track railroad bridge was built two miles upstream in 1915, the original single track steel truss bridge at this location was converted to highway use for the Westminster (SC)-Toccoa (GA) Highway.  In 1940 a new bridge was built, utilizing three spans in the "camelback" steel truss style to handle increasingly heavier traffic from U.S. Highway 123 in 1946.


Then, when the Hartwell Dam downriver was impounded and the water level raised in 1962, a newer, more modern Highway 123 bridge was built upriver and the old bridge was abandoned that same year.  The grand ole structure became the focal point of the Stephens County Park and an excellent fishing pier.

But let's answer the "what happened to the middle span?" question.


"Occasionally, we do get random phone calls from people who've seen pictures of the 'Broken Bridge, wondering where it is," says Brenda Carlan, executive director of the Stephens County Historical Society in Toccoa, the closest community to the bridge.  "It's definitely a conversation piece and a tourist attraction, especially on social media.  The original draw was its relationship with the railroad, but then came the highway.  For years before Interstate 85, Highway 123 was the major route from Greenville, Spartanburg and Charlotte, into Georgia and down to Atlanta just like the nearby railroad, so some folks ask if the bridge span just wore out.  We even get questions from people who live here asking about it."

We know what happened to the middle span.


Going back to 1962 when the new Route 123 bridge was built across the Tugaloo River (Lake Hartwell) a half-mile away and within site of the old bridge, the middle span was dismantled, relocated and reassembled eight miles north of the current location, to replace an old bridge over the Chauga (or 'Chau-gee' as the locals call it) River.  It's now called the Cobb Bridge on Cobb Bridge Road, still serving majestically, allowing people a chance to get from one side of that river to the other.  It was a novel way of recycling part of a bridge that still had many more years of good use.


So it's safe to say that the Broken Bridge is not broken at all.  Dislocated, maybe.  Dismembered, perhaps.  Parceled out, for sure.  But definitely not broken.  And still the talk of the town.


"It's a great place for fishing, even better for photography,"  says Carlan.  "It's peaceful, it's quiet. That dominates every conversation about the Broken Bridge.  Bring your fishing pole and definitely bring your serenity.  You'll be richly rewarded."







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