A bridge to nowhere in particular

The first bridge Conway voters authorized over the Swift River was built in 1793. It probably wasn’t in this particular spot, and it was low enough that floods frequently damaged it until voters approved a completely new bridge in 1834. That one washed away altogether. In 1869 Jacob Berry built this one, lifting it high above the reach of floodwaters, and it remained in use for over a century.

The bridge was the scene of at least one fatal accident. Orrin Robertson, a grain merchant with a store on Washington Street, had spent Monday morning, May 23, 1904, working a farm he had bought near the junction of Allen’s Siding and the West Side Road, and was driving a wagon home for lunch. His horses must have been spooked by something, for bystanders heard them pounding through the bridge at high speed. Robertson, a Civil War veteran, had lost the use of his right arm at the battle of Olustee, Fla., in 1864, and he had trouble controlling the horses; it’s a wonder he was able to manage two pairs of reins at all. The team bolted out of the bridge on a collision course with Boardman Fifield’s butcher wagon, and Robertson jerked the reins to the left with his one good arm, causing a lurch that threw him from the wagon. The rear wheel rolled over his neck, killing him instantly.