GERVAIS STREET BRIDGE CLOSED “FOR FORESEEABLE FUTURE”
A historic arch bridge in downtown Columbia, S.C. has been shut down indefinitely due to concerns over its structural integrity, sources tell FITS.
The Gervais Street Bridge – which carries four lanes of U.S. Highway 1 across the Congaree River from Columbia, S.C. to West Columbia, S.C. – has been closed for the foreseeable future as surging floodwaters race below its reinforced concrete span.
Also closed? Riverwalk Park, part of which runs underneath the bridge.
“The Riverwalk is completely underwater,” one local resident told us. “I’ve never seen that before.”
Constructed from 1926-28, the bridge is a landmark of South Carolina’s capital city. For a quarter century it was also the only bridge across the Congaree River.
In 1980, the bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
UPDATE: The bridge has been deemed structurally safe. Traffic will be opening on the span again momentarily.
39 comments
Devastating…any lives lost in the Midlands during all of this?
So far four statewide. All traffic accidents.
All weather related.
There is a missing DOT worker who is presumed deceased.
Third bridge at same location
The Confederate States Army burned the first bridge in 1865 to delay the progress of General Sherman’s army during the American Civil War. The second bridge was constructed in 1870. It was privately owned until 1912, when it was purchased by Richland County in cooperation with Lexington County.
Did this bridge ever close?
As the Congaree rose, state transportation officials weighed whether to close the Gervais and Blossom street bridges near downtown Columbia. Those bridges remained open early Sunday night.
Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article37708737.html#storylink=cpy
No useful information here!
Senator John Lewis Gervais introduced a bill that resulted in Columbia as the Capital of the state. Blossom Street is rumored to come from the cotton blossom, which was a crop that prospered throughout the State.
Bull. It was the Turd Blossom.
That crop prospered because of the free labor from the Africans you held in slavery. Some of the richest men in the world lived here during this era of slavery.
My father’s ancestors were sharecroppers in every branch back to the Civil War. The cess showed they owned no prperty, not even a home. I can only trace a two branches before the Civil War. They didn’t own slaves at the 1860 census. My mother’s ancestors were from New England. They are just as likely or more to have profited from slavery. Either by the triangle rum, slave, sugar trade or from the textile industry. One ancestor was a ship captain in the early eighteen hundreds, but it appeared to be coastal trade. At least one trip was made to Haiti. Other ancestors were machine mechanics in a textile town, but it was after the war.
Hmmm, I think it would be interesting to have a cute girl friend named “Blossom”. I may talk to Adorabella about that.
Now all of SC can go on the federal titt and get its third world infrastructure repaired by the ” big bad gubament”….well done probably north of 2-3 billion – a real ‘sugar titt’.
How about saying ” no” now like for the affordable care act?
Pathetic bunch of hypocrites, but I guess that’s just “our southern culture”.
WFT are you talking about you colloidal fucking liberal Dumbass…
You bastards are so saturated in hate, you NEVER let, do you?
Well who but ‘da gubament’ is going to pay for SC infrastructure to be restored?
No more ‘don’t tread on me’ rhetoric but right onto the ‘federal titt’ – Obama declared SC a federal disaster zone – I think you guys would oppose that, right? A liberal ‘world gubament’ proponent can’t be right – ever!
SC is a federal disaster zone every single day of the year, year in year out…
Oh wow, the hate toxicity is off the charts in this GrandTango fellow. We need to quarantine him.
Ignore him, it drives him nuts. Ignore him long enough he throws a fit and starts talking about crapping pants.
Piss off. I live in SC and no one asked for this. Idiot.
Your trailer will float ….
We did, because we hate South Carolina for taking down the Confederate flag and having an Indian-American governor!
That’s it! The infrastructure sucks because SC finally took the traitor flag down ! Brilliant absolutely brilliant ! storm drains is a moderate public infrastructure that normally gets installed by ‘da gubamnt’ when adequately funded. But you don’t want’ da gubamnt’ to have any money cos ‘da gubament’ is the root of ll evil.
Go back under the rock you crawled out from and stop fantasizing about Indian women!
That’s a good point…………………………..
Where ARE the Tea Baggers and other tin-foil hat wearing dips who are always yelling STATES RIGHTS! STATES RIGHTS! WE DON’T WANT YOUR FEDERAL MONEY!!!TAKE IT AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR FEMA ASS!!!!!
I ain’t heard one damn peep out of those damn hypocrites!!!!!
Let those limited government types straighten this shit out without a damn cent of federal money
Come on…show me how your pukes are going to take care of this WITHOUT one cent of federal money or one damn bit of federal assistance…(that includes you FITS!!)
I say let the Great state of South Carolina take care of every damn bit of this with state funding—put your money where your mouth is…………
I know,,maybe “Citizens for Limited Government can go to Grainger’s and buy some pumps, a couple of wet vacs, some generators and a squeegee or two…………………
Or maybe Grover Norquist can roll up his sleeves and fill a few sandbags or row a boat…NOT!!!!!
I know….how about asking the good people of New Jersey and New York to give the Great State of South Carolina and forget how all those great conservative represenatives from the south waffled around on aid after Hurricane Sandy!!!!!
PREACH _BROTHER_ PREACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I LUV IT!!!!!!!!!!!
They’re too busy picking up and rescuing you.
Which ones, the police officers paid by taxpayer money, or the national guard people paid by taxpayer money?
Naw -they’re to busy offloading with their monster trucks and then THEY need to get rescued
You’ll see those tea baggers and ‘don’t tread on me’ guys are gonna get new trailers and maybe even a new drive way to ’em. The state’s highway system that the legislators refused to repair will be rebuilt by ‘da gubament’ to make sure that Boeing, Volvo, Michelin and BMW stay here. While they were debating sharia law these useless f..cks.
Big mouth about ‘our southern culture’, big flags at Darlington but when it comes to public services it’s all ‘minimally adequate’, from sewers, to water, to electricity, to education – third world country.
As long as we are paying federal taxes then we should make sure that we take advantage of the federal money to fix our roads. We put it in there, we might as well use it.
What if SC created a special lottery to help pay for the repairs to our flood damaged roads? They could have a 50/50 drawing every week where half of the money went to DOT for repairs and half went to a winner. a guaranteed winner every week and the money would not be subject to SC Taxes.
Except we already get a lot more than what we pay, right? So just ask for more.
At one time SC received less highway money than we pain in. I am not sure if that has changed or not.
That is a classic, old school bridge. I hope it makes it through this week. Would be a shame to see it ends its usefulness.
So do we still have the money for those 200,000 Syrian refugees?
THIS WHOLE WEB PAGE SUCKS!!!!! MAKES ME SICK~~ You haters just keep on hating on each other, such a waste of time bickering back and forth!!! 4th graders!!!!
The door is that way.
You got some nice titties – need them warmed up, eh?
No taxpayers money, please. Screw the bridge. Let it collapse. Make Columbians pay for a new one.
Need it to collapse to keep the next yankee army out when we withdraw from the Union.
You never re-joined the Union.
SC is getting what it deserves.