The Original Church Street Bridge
Decatur Metro | August 6, 2010 | 9:37 am
A couple weeks back, Mr. Chris Billingsley encountered a woman along Church Street who was wondering why city employees had recently removed all the vegetation from the old Church Street Bridge. (It is apparently located off the parking lot of this apartment complex.)
Well I for one had no idea there was an old Church Street Bridge! So I followed up with the city about the clean up but have yet to hear a response, so for now Mr. Billingsley’s pictures will have to be “news” enough.
As the first pic after the jump shows, the bridge is engraved with the date 1899 and the name of DeKalb commissioner A.J. Freeman.
Related Posts:
-
December 16, 2011 Clairemont Ave at Ponce circa 1956 (23)
-
February 7, 2011 Before the “Great Lakes”, there was “Clairemont Park” (13)
-
November 9, 2011 Ponce @ Church circa 1982 (47)
Where is this located? Anybody know?
Where the heck?
It looks like in the parking lot of the Tudor-ish townhouses.
On a related note, a newer “old” Clairmont Road bridge is clearly visible across from the VA hospital.
Fascinating! I’m going to go look too!
between Decatur Square Condo’s and Glenlake Pool.
even walking by it everyday you’d miss it because it was so overgrown by nature.
it is awesome that they are clearing it out though, what a gem!
I lived there about 3 years ago (Decatur Square Condos) and parked right in front of this old bridge. It was terribly overgrown at the time – but believe it or not there was a fairly good size tree growing ON it. My roommate and I investigated and we were shocked to find that the tree was not under the bridge growing up through it – but had actually rooted and grown on the surface of the bridge. That’s how much dirt and debris had collected on it over the years. It’s nice to see it liberated.
Ah, so cool! Wonder if the City is planning on a restoration/preservation project there? It doesn’t seem like it would be too complex or expensive to do (that’s totally from my non-expert observation)…but would be really neat to have this old bridge actually used as a walkway again.
Looks wide enough for just 1 horse and buggy at a time!
very cool!!
I discovered this bridge a couple of years ago while doing some internet research for the old Steele-Cobb house. It’s kinda cool to pull right up to it, but I didn’t have the nerve to cross it as it was pretty overgrown. Someone please correct me here if I’m wrong, but I think I read that it was the first stone/concrete bridge ever built in DeKalb county?
It would be nice to see the city tie it in somehow to the newly renovated Glenlake Park.
Love the old Steel-Cobb property. Did you find anything particularly cool about it in your research?
I can find precious little info about the Steele-Cobb house. I essentially live in (what was at one time) the home’s front yard! It’s supposedly the oldest remaining residential structure in DeKalb County and was built by the son of the man that built the Tullie-Smith house.
I was thrilled when it was on the Medlock Garden Tour last year. Beautiful property & they had a nice “history of” display in the yard.
And it’s still for sale….but at a considerably lower price than the initial 1.3 million!
What I want to know is if this is a bridge to nowhere?
OR: Is it like the wardrobe in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and when you cross it, you go into Narnia…..
It is along the “old” Church street, I believe it was rerouted when widened in the 1980s. It is strange talk about the 80s as if some far off time, I am getting old!
VOTE CRANKY!
They dusted it off as part of the new Church Street traffic calming reroute.
Remember to take turns and go really slow.
Also of note, is a pipe between the new bridge and old bridge that I believe drains (it flows year round) what used to be a spring into the South Fork Peachtree Creek Tributary a.k.a. Glenn Creek and formerly known as Hunters Branch. I have not verified but I have heard Col. Hunter had a still at the spring in the 19th century. One of these days I want to go to DeKalb History Center to see if I can verify, unless someone already knows or beats me to it.
Ridgelandistan: thanks for the chuckle!