Some old-timers remember when travelers at Haletown, Tenn., near Jasper, were glad to have a chugging ferry to take vehicles across the broad Tennessee River.
But then in 1929 – 82 years ago! – there came a modern wonder. It was a two-lane, truss-style bridge on high concrete pedestals: the magnificent Marion Memorial Bridge.
Now there is some nostalgia as there are plans to take the old bridge down and build a wider one.
Today, Chattanooga-to-Nashville and other traffic in the area goes smoothly over the river on a low, wide, concrete roadway that is useful and convenient, but surely far less picturesque than the old, high Marion Memorial Bridge.