Faith, Folklore, and Friends

  From the historical marker at the site of the Old Railroad Bridge: In 1832, the Alabama legislature authorized the Florence Bridge Company to construct this bridge across the Tennessee River.  In 1840, it opened as a toll bridge.  Twice damaged by storms, it was reopened in 1858 as a double-decked bridge by the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.  Additional piers were added to support the large wooden superstructure with trains using the upper deck while the lower deck served as a toll bridge.  In April 1862, the Confederate army burned the bridge. Later in the Civil War, the piers were used to assist in ferry crossings and to anchor a pontoon bridge built by Gen. John B. Hood’s Confederate Army of Tennessee in November 1864.  After the war, both decks of the bridge were rebuilt and returned to service in 1870.  In 1892, an engine and five cars crashed through both decks into the river.  The superstructure was replaced with stee...