Most people from Pickens and Dawson County are familiar with the metal span bridge over the Amicalola River. Spanning 80 feet over a popular fishing and tubing location known as the Devil's Elbow, the bridge has been a landmark of local activity for over 120 years.
John Chumley and his family helped build the bridge. The Chumleys lived downstream from the elbow, and Wash Steele owned the property upstream. In 1977, the bridge was nominated to be placed on the National Historic Register. At the time, it was one of 22 wooden bridges left in the State of Georgia.
Arson got in the way of progress. The bridge went up in smoke, a victim of arson and malintent. The National Registry application was withdrawn.
At one time in the past, the foundations of a bridge that was closer to the river were evident. The new bridge was built another ten feet higher to prevent it from being destroyed by floods.
Today the bridge is a metal bridge covered with graffiti. Like many other artifacts of historical importance, they are marred by the impulsivity and callousness of morons.
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In Cherokee County, another wooden bridge named Steele's Bridge was operational until it was flooded by the creation of Lake Allatoona. Located near Bridge Mill and Steele Bridge streets, you can still discern where the roadbed connected to the bridge.
In 1918, at around 1:30 pm, a group of 50 soldiers from Camp Gordon were traveling over the bridge to locate deserters and moonshiners, when the the first five-ton truck broke through the bridge and flipped upside down, killing three soldiers instantly in the Etowah River. Six or seven men were seriously injured, and another ten were bruised. The driver of the truck, Corporal G.W. Schmidt, despite having a crushed leg and wounded face, helped rescue some of the other men.
Another truck was in convoy along with four private vehicles carrying revenue agents, Deputy United States Marshall, A Selective Service Officer, the soldier's commanding officers, and the famous war photographer Tracy Mathewson, (who in several decades would become one of the founders of Grandview Lake in Pickens County) They stopped short of driving across the bridge and several ran to a local house for help. In short order, two doctors and some nurses showed up to help attend to the wounded.
Sergeant Abe Marquis, Corporal Sam Smith, and Private Ernest Rheinsmith died instantly.
Private Harold Secord, Private Alfred Tripp, Sergeant Harold Burton, Corporal Edwin Brindley, Charles Kennedy, A.S. Johnson, and George W. Schmidt were all hurt badly.
Private Hugh Fitzpatrick, Sergeant Jerald Clune, John Kinen, William Bruck, Lee Bobbett, Corporal Eberhardt, Neram Price were also bruised.
The Commanding officers First Lieutenant Mark O. Kimberling and First Lieutenant L.M. Blenner were following in a different vehicle and were not hurt.
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After the truck plunged in, both Lieutenants rushed down. They and the healthy men overturned the five-ton truck to be sure no one was trapped beneath. A nearby resident, Mrs. Carpenter, came by to administer bandages. It took an hour for the ambulance to arrive.
Later Lieutenant Kimberling drove to the home of George Brown, son of former Governor Joseph Brown, to phone headquarters at Camp Gordon. The families of the dead were notified by telegraph.
Although the bridge was old, it was found not to have been tampered with.
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