The Second Street Bridge

The Second Street Bridge. . Before the river was bridged, and later when an existing one was closed for repairs, local citizens and travelers crossed the river just a short distance upstream, at today's location of the 4th street bridge, which was more often than not shallow enough to ford., The first span, an open one or "rude” bridge was washed away by the July 22-23, 1846 flood., Within two years, a second bridge, a covered one, was built by William Hamilton, and in 1858 was repaired by Lemuel Chenoweth (West Virginia's acclaimed master bridge-builder (1811-1887)., June 1891 the erection of a third, a state of the art iron bridge, was completed., In 1922, to accommodate the automobile, the fourth and present concrete bridge took its place. That span initially boasted a new feature- -pillar-supported, multiple-unit electric lights-- which heralded, beginning two years later, the planned erection of such lights throughout the rest of Weston's business section.