The Big Mac Bridge

Though it was officially named the Daniel Carter Beard Bridge (after the co-founder of the Boy Scouts and the Sons of Daniel Boone), the public in Newport quickly began calling this the "Big Mac Bridge" shortly after its completion in 1976. The twin yellow arches of the structure recalled the double "golden arches" of the McDonald's logo in many people's minds. According to Wikipedia, "McDonald's considered opening a restaurant at the base after the nickname caught on, but never went to construction."

I'm not sure why the bridge was painted bright mustard yellow in the first place; perhaps the same "focus groups" were hired to determine its color as with the Purple People Bridge.

14th Street Railroad Bridge

I've always been fascinated with the little building that's perched atop the Fourteenth Street Railroad Bridge just outside of downtown Louisville. I had always thought the bridge abandoned, since I've never noticed any trains crossing it. But reading up on it online just now, I find it's open and doing well under the auspices of the Louisville & Indiana Railroad (whose logo can be clearly seen on the little building). I'd like to venture up there sometime if they'll let me, and take some photos from that vantage point.


The bridge runs along the beginning of the McAlpine Locks and Dam area. A hydroelectric plant is operated here by the always-controversial utility company LG&E, or should I say E.ON; no wait, I mean PPL.




Before being rechristened after William McAlpine in 1960, this was known as the Louisville-Portland Canal since its completion in 1830, and to this day, many people still refer to this area as simply "the canal".

The canal had a convoluted history, which involved costs going way over estimate - due in part to unforeseen difficulties with the solid rock bed near the Falls of the Ohio that needed to dug out completely by workers (including a young Abraham Lincoln, who was part of the construction crew in 1827). President Andrew Jackson refused to give a third injection of government funding to save the project, and it was barely finished with the help of private investors. But by 1855, the government had taken over the canal in a massive buyout.

Abandoned Railroad Bridge Returns

The long-abandoned Big Four Railroad Bridge has been slated to be repurposed as a pedestrian walkway/bikeway, making travel between Louisville and Indiana fun.


When I first moved to Louisville several years ago, everyone was saying the pedestrian bridge in Butchertown was coming "any day now". After a couple of years I gave up on it, so it pleases me to see that they're finally making some progress on the construction of the on-ramp that will enable feet, bikes, and wheelchairs to make the trek across the Ohio River.

However, the trajectory of the on-ramp is such a wide one that simply getting to the bridge looks almost as long a journey as crossing the bridge itself. I was rather hoping for an elevator or something.

High Bridge

This railroad bridge crossing the Kentucky River between Jessamine and Mercer counties is simply known as "High Bridge".

It began in the 1850s as a suspension bridge with stone towers, designed by John A. Roebling (designer of the Roebling Suspension Bridge that takes you from Covington to Cincinnati, as well as the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC). That project went unfinished, however, and its remains were later revised with a cantilever design. At its completion in 1876, it was the first cantilever bridge in the United States and the tallest railroad bridge in the world.

The bridge was modified and expanded greatly in 1911, and then again in 1929. It's still in operation today, serving the Norfolk Southern Railway.

Hopkinsville Hoofer Mistaken for Suicidal Swan-diver

From the Kentucky New Era:

Jeremy Johnson said he was dancing on the top rail of a bridge in Hopkinsville, but drivers below thought he was going to jump and called police.

Johnson's job is to advertise Quizno's by dancing on the roadside near the Pennyrile Parkway while holding a sign for the sub shop. The Kentucky New Era quoted Johnson saying he was taking a break Saturday and was rolling a cigarette when drivers honked and waved at him.

Johnson said he lighted his cigarette and started dancing on the rail in response.

Police didn't join in the dance. They cited him for disorderly conduct.

Livermore Bridge

The Livermore Bridge, located in McLean County near the city of Livermore, has often been referred to as "the longest bridge in the world", and was so designated by Ripley's Believe it or Not. The claim isn't even close to being true, however - I did a quick Googling and found that although people don't quite agree on what exactly is the longest bridge on Earth, Kentucky's Livermore Bridge is nowhere in the running.

The Lake Ponchartrain Causeway is generally regarded as the longest bridge in the world, unless you count the Bang Na Expressway, which is an elevated overpass spanning 33 miles but doesn't cross any body of water.


The Livermore Bridge does have a claim to fame for the record books, though: it begins in one county (McLean), crosses over not one but two rivers (the Green and Rough Rivers), and then passes over a separate county (Ohio County), then ends up back in the county it started in. This is the only known occurrence of this kind in the world, and though it may not be Guinness Book of World Records material, it's unusual enough for me.

Arrests made in burned-body killing

Following up on our earlier post about a burning body found under a bridge in Cold Spring, KY, the Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that four people have so far been arrested in connection with the case.

Thursday night police arrested Marion Lawson Parker III in Arlington Heights, Ohio, said Covington Police Lt. Col. Spike Jones. Parker, 27, of Covington, who is known as "Timmy," is charged with murder while being held in the Hamilton County jail.

When Parker is brought back to Kentucky he will be charged with robbery, unlawful imprisonment and tampering with physical evidence.

Shawn Davis, 28, was found dead under the bridge on Dodsworth Lane in Cold Spring after firefighters responded to a report of a fire.

Three other people were arrested in the death.

Five days after Davis was found, Patrick Cooke, 24, of Covington; Samantha Mayse, 19, of Independence; and Mary Ann Hartbarger, 34, of Covington were all charged with complicity to commit murder and complicity to commit robbery.

Cooke and Hartbarger also are charged with tampering with physical evidence. Cooke faces an additional charge of first-degree unlawful imprisonment.

All three are being held without bail in the Kenton County jail.

Covington police Lt. Col. Spike Jones said Thursday that the tampering with physical evidence charges stem from the burning of the body.

The funeral for Mr. Davis is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at Don Catchen and Son Funeral Home, 313 W 19th Street, Covington, KY. He will be buried at Mother of God Cemetery in Fort Wright, KY.

Burning corpse found under bridge

This past Saturday, someone called 911 to report a fire blazing underneath a bridge in Cold Spring, KY. When local firefighters arrived, they discovered some had dumped a dead body there and set it on fire.

Keith Hill, police chief of Campbell County, told The Kentucky Enquirer that they don't believe the man had been dead for very long before the incident occurred.

By way of fingerprints and tattoos, the man was identified as Shawn Allen Davis of Covington. Davis was 28 years old, a father of three, and no one seems to have a clue why anyone would have done this to him.

The Bridges of Kentucky

For those of you who have an unexplainable obsession with bridges - and I know you're out there - the "street view" feature on Google Maps can be quite a handy toy, allowing you to traverse Kentucky's bridges virtually.

Madison-Milton Bridge, Milton, KY

Cumberland River Falls Bridge, Whitley County, KY

Boonesboro Bridge, Boonesboro, KY

Sherman Minton Bridge, Louisville, KY

Clark Bridge, Louisville, KY

Gordon Hill Pike Bridge, Corbin, KY

Paducah Bridge, Paducah, KY

J.R. Miller Blvd Bridge, Owensboro, KY

Lake Barkley US 68 Bridge, Cadiz, KY

Clays Ferry Bridge, Clays Ferry, KY

Ironton-Russell Bridge, Ashland, KY

Roebling Suspension Bridge, Covington, KY


And while Google currently doesn't let us street-view the William H. Natcher Bridge in Daviess County, we do get to go underneath it, at least:

Hanging Bridge in Berea

A user recently posted this entry on the Unusual Kentucky message board:

I have known about the Unusual Kentucky site for quite some time now and I would like to suggest a place of interest.

Hanging Bridge in Berea, Kentucky, a few miles away from Airport Road, is a genuinely creepy place, especially at around dusk and night.

I've been there myself, on multiple occasions, during the night and day. In the daytime, you don't usually encounter much. The only thing I have experienced during daylight hours are rather odd noises, like footsteps, on the bridge itself, when the air is mostly still, and traffic is nil. The two things that will make your skin crawl during the day, however, are not near Hanging Bridge, but a few miles before it in the forms of two old, abandoned houses.

However, this place tends to get a little more active when daylight expires.

The first time I ever went to Hanging Bridge, I remember seeing a strange, blue light in the woods behind my friend's truck. I did a double take to make sure that there wasn't some far-off man-made light source causing this, and there was not.

I returned again the next night with another friend and had a more intense experience....

Click here to continue and read the full post.

Mothman Sighting in Russell

These two photographs have been circulating the net for several months now, and are alleged to be a Mothman sighting on a bridge connecting Russell, KY and Ironton, OH.

I'm not buying it, for several reasons; not the least of which is that I just don't believe in the "Mothman" in the first place. I'm also troubled by the fact that the two jpgs are small and of different sizes (where are the originals?). And it sure is a coincidence that the Mothman is seen clinging to a bridge on the Ohio River, just as in its original alleged 1966 sighting. The photos are claimed to have been taken in the evening near dusk, yet the second photo of the "Mothman" leaving shows a considerably lighter sky - indicating that the photos were taken in the morning as the sun is rapidly rising.

Finally, the story that the couple who took these photos claim to have seen its red eyes glowing - even from that huge distance - is just plain silly.

The Purple People Bridge

So, they had this abandoned railroad bridge in Newport, KY, see. And they renovated it as a pedestrian bridge, see. But someone hired "focus groups" to determine what color it should be painted, and the answer came back: purple. That's what you get for having more money than sense, and for not being able to make a decision yourself. Then again, the focus groups recommended a darker purple, and the powers-that-be decided to ignore that part and chose a pale lavender.

More infamous than the bridge itself is the "attraction" they tried to organize around it, which consisted of walking a set of steps that go up and down the top perimeter of the bridge. It might have been interesting, had they not charged 60 bucks for the experience, and not made you don idiotic-looking yellow and purple full-body costumes (in the dead of summer, even!) and made you wear headphones blasting music and ridiculous sound effects into your ears. They also made you sit through a painfully boring hour-long "orientation" video before the walk.

Not surprisingly, almost no one wanted to take part, and they withdrew the program in Summer 2007 due to utter lack of interest. (You can still cross the "Purple People Bridge" as a pedway to Cincinnati, though.)