The Lost Bridge in Pennington Gap, Virginia

About 1 mile north of Pennington Gap, Virginia you’ll find 2 concrete bridge piers and a concrete bridge abutment on the east side of the North Fork of the Powell River also known as Stone Creek.

I have contacted the county and state about the former bridge that sat at this location looking for the history of the bridge. Unfortunately neither has any record of this bridge even existing. Apparently all records have been destroyed.

However, this is what I’ve found out from aerial photos, old maps and speaking with the locals:

Older maps indicate that a bridge was at this location as far back as 1935 on what was then known as “Right Poor Valley Road”. Aerial photos show that the bridge was in use up until at least 1983 when the current bridge 600 feet south was constructed. Aerial photos also suggest that the bridge was removed by 2007.

The bridge is reported to have been a green steel pony truss bridge with a wooden deck but may have been switched over to a metal deck later on.

That’s all I have on this bridge. So basically this is a lesson I keep telling people....Nothing lasts forever. The house you live in, the church where you worship, the store where you shop, the library where you study and the community hall where you gather for monthly meetings.....They will eventually disappear. Statistically speaking, 50% of all historic structures will disappear over the next 100 years due to fire, flood, storm, neglect, progress, civil unrest, war, global warming, earthquakes and more.

Do the next generation a favor, individually video document the buildings in your town giving a short 5 minute history on each and then send me the video so that I can archive it for future generations.

I can’t do everything by myself, but with the help of everyone, we can do everything to document these structures so that future generations understand how fortunate we were to enjoy these structures in 2024.

This bridge in Pennington Gap, Virginia is only a memory to a few people and in 20 years when those people pass on, virtually nothing will be known about this bridge. Do a favor for the next generation and begin video documenting the buildings in your town and send them to me. I’ll take care of the rest.

GPS Location: 36º46'26.2"N 83º01'58.5"W