On The Road To Clarksville Through The Silver Bridge

You probably see a pattern here.  Every Thursday, we drive to Clarksville for Institute.  There is a clear almost completely freeway path from our house-2 miles to 540, up 14 miles to I-40 and then directly east about 60 miles to Clarksville.  It takes about an hour and 5 minutes if traffic is good.  (Bridge construction on I-540 has made that route terrible at the times we have to travel which motivated looking for alternative routes.  It is done now, but we are committed to trying every alternative route between here and there...within reason although some have been more adventurous than others. See last week on the dirt roads.)

This time, in planning a route, Gary saw a marker for the Silver Bridge. Knowing that I like bridges, he decided we would head on that road to Clarksville on Thursday.  So this time, we headed up I-540 and on to I-40, but then turned off at Mulbery and took a road on the north side of I-40 that headed most of the way to Clarksville.  The whole goal was to cross the SILVER BRIDGE!

And, unexpectedly, here it is!!!

A one lane bridge--not quite as Silver as we expected with a mix of dirt, rocks and asphalt for the road.  

It crossed a pretty creek....

I loved the stud and beam work on the bridge itself.

The bridge only had 7'9" clearance and had these yellow bars across both directions to make sure that nothing taller crossed.

and on to the dirt roads beyond the bridge...google maps doesn't tell us if the roads are paved or dirt.

Interesting things to see along the way--

the dead tree in the middle of a pasture....

Bales of hay lined up

I first saw the flag flying so wanted a picture of that, but as we got closer

it became even more interesting...a tiny white building with flags--dressed for the season.  On the right side is a black bell tower.  When you look closely at the photo, we found a small brown marker with "USA- 1940 WPA" so it was a part of the work done during the 1930s and 1940s to get people back to work.  But we still don't know yet what this little building is/was actually for.

Then ended up at the sweet Clarksville Chapel...

Another Thursday and another fun drive to Clarksville.  It is a different type of life we lead here.  We are busy at times and we keep busy at other times, but it allows us to slow down a bit and take different roads to the same place.  I love that!  Until next week, Clarksville!