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Photograph of Half Chance Iron Bridge
Photograph by Ben Cooper, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Half-Chance Bridge

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

From the record

“The Half Chance Iron Bridge, also known as the Half-Chance Bridge, is a historic single-span wrought iron bridge located near the small community of Half Chance, between the towns of Linden and Dayton in rural Marengo County, Alabama. It is on Marengo County Road 39 over Chickasaw Bogue Creek.”

Wikipedia article Half Chance Iron Bridge, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 29 National Register listings published here for Marengo County · listed in 1972 · category: Structure.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 structure as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. SR 39 over the Chickasaw Bogue Creek, Dayton, 36783
  • When was it listed? September 1972
  • Category. structure
  • Census division. Thomaston
  • National Register reference number. 72000166 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

48 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 48 fires within 5 miles of Half-Chance Bridge between 1994 and 2020, burning about 4,440 acres in total. None started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning18
Missing data/not specified/undetermined16
Recreation and ceremony5
Railroad operations and maintenance3
Equipment and vehicle use3
Smoking1
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Other causes1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
29 September 2019Equipment and vehicle use1.1 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190929-10
21 September 2010Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
20 September 2015Other causes1.0 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionSWR-20150920-004
20 September 2014Missing data/not specified/undetermined3.0 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionSWR-20140920-001
16 September 2010Railroad operations and maintenance187 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionGULF STATES RAILROAD FIRE
15 September 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined4,000 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionCOUNTY LINE
14 September 2000Missing data/not specified/undetermined60 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
11 September 1997Debris and open burningunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named

Every fire recorded in Marengo County

Storms near this property

4 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dayton, the town this property stands in, in 4 storm reports between 2005 and 2024: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2005HailDayton$1,000Quarter size hail was reported in and near the Dayton community.
August 2024Thunderstorm WindDayton-Several trees were blown down around Dayton.
August 2019Thunderstorm WindDayton-Several trees uprooted along County Road 39 near the town of Dayton.
July 2013Flash FloodDayton-Several roads were impassable due to flash flooding in northern Marengo County, including County Road 39, between Highway 25 and County Road 33. A bridge was washed out on County Road 44, between Highway 25 and County Road 53. Additionally, a portion of 6th Avenue between Highway 25 and Chestnut Street was washed out.

Every storm recorded in Marengo County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
William Poole House4.2 miles1994
Thomaston Colored Institute4.8 miles2000
C.S. Golden House5.1 miles2000
Thomaston Central Historic District5.3 miles2000
Patrick Farrish House5.5 miles2000
Old Courthouse5.9 miles1974

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 72000166 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Marengo CountyAll 29 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.