Saluda County Bridge No. 4, Road S-26 spanning Clouds Creek, Jones Crossroads

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER SC,41-JOCRO.V,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

This bridge is one of 89 pony truss bridges identified in the South Carolina Metal Truss Highway Bridge Inventory, and one of 47 structures having a Warren design with parallel chords. According to the bridge plate, the metal truss bridge was constructed in The structure is one of approximately 137 metal truss bridges known to exist in South Carolina and one of only 41 structures having a bridge plate. The structure is a Warren pony truss bridge with parallel chords and rigid joints. Curb-to-curb it is feet wide. Its length is 61 feet. This pony truss was reported to have been re-erected over Clouds Creek in about after having seen service elsewhere.

Its design appears to be conventional in most respects, although the lower chord design, consisting of an I shaped member built up from angles and a web plat, is somewhat unusual. The end abutments of the bridge are also unique, consisting of treated timbers stacked horizontally on a e'xe'xlO' deep concrete footing. The significance of the bridge lies not so much in its design, as in the fact that is is the only known Warren pony truss constructed in South Carolina by the Austin Brothers Bridge Company of Atlanta, Georgia. The company is known to have constructed three other metal truss bridges in the State: a pin-connected Pratt through truss a Warren through truss and a Parker through truss (date unknown). Transmitted by; Monica E. Hawley, Historian,