A group of children cut the ribbon on Friday (June 19) on the newly completed Watkinsville Mulberry Street Covered Bridge, reflecting the stated goal of Mayor Brian Brodrick that the structure be one that children will know and remember.
“We want to build communities that our children want to come back to,” Brodrick told the more than 100 people who gathered for the ribbon cutting. “That's how communities thrive.”
“This bridge won't determine whether our children come back, but it will help shape the memories they carry with them,” he said. “The walks, the bike rides, the friendships, and the connection to a hometown that invested in them, and really invested in all of us, young and old.”
“This bridge is a beautiful structure,” said the Rev. Joseph Nunnally, a Watkinsville native, when Brodrick asked him to step forward and bless the bridge, “and just looking and walking around, just looking at the greenery, I see the hand of God all over that.”
While the ribbon cutting was for the bridge, Brodrick in his comments focused more broadly on the $3.7 million project that included the bridge and improvements to Mulberry Street, construction of a small park around the bridge with restrooms, and a sidewalk along Simonton Bridge Road.
Financing comes from a $1.5 million grant and $2.2million loan from the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank, with the loan to be repaid with Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax and Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax monies.
Brodrick said the project addressed an old desire of the city to extend a sidewalk along Simonton Bridge Road from the city center to its eastern limits and now also connects that city center to the recently refurbished city cemetery and the new Thomas Farm Preserve.
Brodrick said the city learned in developing the project that the route along Mulberry Street actually was the historic entrance to Watkinsville from Athens, so “Today, we're restoring that connection for a new generation of walkers, runners, cyclists, families, and others who want to use it.”
Covered Bridge
Brodrick credited Mark Thomas with the idea of making the bridge over a small stream at the bottom of Mulberry into a covered bridge.
Thomas, who grew up on the property that is now the Thomas Farm Preserve, is in the construction business. He also is a member of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners.
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| Bridge Looking East From Mulberry Street |
Thomas credits his great-grandfather with saving the covered bridge that formerly spanned Calls Creek on North Main Street in Watkinsville by moving it to it current location over Rose Creek on Elder Mill Road in the south of the county.
“I'll never forget, Mark, after he submitted his bid,” Brodrick said, “coming out and his eyes are twinkling, and he looked at me and he said, ‘Brian, we want to build a covered bridge.’”
“And I thought, that's just perfect,” Brodrick said. “And suddenly this stopped being a sidewalk project and it became a bridge project. And what could have become a simple crossing became an opportunity to create something beautiful, create something memorable, and something that reflects the character and history of Watkinsville.”
“More than 120 years ago,” Brodrick said, Simonton Bridge Road didn’t exist, and where the new bridge is “was the road into Watkinsville. This is how stagecoaches took people from Athens into Watkinsville to the Eagle Tavern.”
Brodrick said Thomas partnered with Don Phillips, owner of Industrial Mechanical Inc. in the Watkinsville Industrial Park, to build the bridge “that I think you could drive 14 fire trucks across at the same time, and it wouldn't sink an inch.”
Phillips “had built everything, I think, that's possible except a bridge,” Brodrick said, “and Don decided he was willing to build a covered bridge.”
Thomas and Phillips were on a long list of people that Brodrick singled out for making the project come to fruition.
Children
“In a few minutes, we'll have children from Mulberry Street, Thrasher Drive, and Simonton Place to help cut the ribbon,” Brodrick said near the end of his comments.
“Most of you have heard me say this,” he said. “We've got to create non-digital ways for people to connect.”
“We've got to keep building parks, we've got to keep creating these connections, and most importantly, we've got to create the spaces where you all want to get to know each other as neighbors, not as political people,” he said.
“Not based on your gender, not based on your ideology, but as neighbors here in Watkinsville. And I truly believe this is one of those spaces,” he said.
“So for the cynics who don't believe that's possible, I say look around, and it is possible,” he said, “and we're doing it here in Watkinsville.”
“So the mayor's done talking, other than congratulating people,” he said.
At Brodrick’s invitation, many of those he called out for recognition gathered behind the children at the eastern entrance to the Bridge.
Those assembled behind the children as well as those in the audience in front encouraged the children as they cut the ribbon officially opening the city's and the county's new covered bridge.
Video
The video below is of the full ribbon cutting ceremony.
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