Elkhurst Bridge

 Built around 1930, the Elkhurst Bridge is a cable suspension bridge with steel uprights and a wooden deck.  It spans the Elk River and connects county roads 5 & 18 to county road 22 in the Village of Elkhurst in Clay County, West Virginia.

 The bridge construction consists of a three span steel cable.  The main anchorage cables are made up of 6 cables with 19 strands each twined together into one rope.  The cables are supported by reinforced concrete anchorages and steel towers supported by reinforced concrete piers.  The substructure units are founded on spread concrete footings.  It is 424 feet and 7 inches in length,8 feet and 4 inches wide (7 feet and 3 inches traffic width) and the deck is constructed with 3 inch by 10 inch timber planks, 8 feet and 4 inches wide.  It also has 6 inch by 6 inch timber wheel guards and a 2 line, ½ inch in diameter cable railing along each side.  The cable connections consist of saddle clamps and the connections in the steel towers utilize both rivets and bolts.  The stringers are spliced together over each floor beam with steel plates and high strength bolts, and tack welded to the top flange of the floor beams.

 History

Extensive repairs were made to the structure in 1941.  The timber floor was replaced, the original timber towers were replaced with the current steel towers and there was improvement to the cable anchorages at the abutments.

In 1984, extensive repairs were made including installing new steel stringers to replace the wooden ones and new wood floor beams and new timber deck and wheel guards.  Some hanger clamps were repaired and lubricant was applied to the main suspension cables as well as repairing one of the towers and the saddle blocks if each tower.

Supplemental cables were added at the anchorages and the saddle blocks of each tower in 1985.

In September of 1993 some vertical suspender members were replaced and in 1998 some repairs were made to the towers and some additional vertical suspender members were replaced.

The Elkhurst Bridge was closed to vehicular traffic on March 5, 2003.