Sidewalks

Two years ago, I couldn't get Adam, then 8 years old, up on a bridge sidewalk, particularly one over the Ohio River. Now I can't keep him off them. He likes going up on sidewalks with me to take pictures or to just enjoy the view. But we've found one sidewalk that puts the fear of heights into him.

That sidewalk is on the Ben Williamson Memorial Bridge at Ashland, Kentucky. The bridge was built in the 1920s and renovated sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s. To increase the width of the traffic lanes, they put the sidewalk outside the main bridge structure. Seriously. It's bolted on to the side of the bridge.

We found ourselves in Ashland yesterday, and Adam had heard me talk about going up on the sidewalk back in the winter to get photos of the R. Clayton McWhorter and the junk fleet. So, he wanted to go up there to see if any boats were in the area. We didn't make it out over the river, as he wanted to go back down when a truck went over the bridge and got the sidewalk to shaking.

We still have the Robert C. Byrd/6th Street Bridge at Huntington and, a couple of times a year, the Bridge of Honor at Pomeroy, Ohio. But other Ohio River bridges, no. The two new bridges at Portsmouth, Ohio, are without sidewalks, as is the Silver Memorial Bridge at Point Pleasant, W.Va. The sidewalk on the bridge at Ironton, Ohio, has been closed for several years.

I just don't understand why new bridges don't have sidewalks.