Hundreds of south Sebastian County residents leave their tire marks on a historically significant structure every day, but few are aware of the fact that they are literally driving across history.
Four bridges in the Today in Fort Smith readership area join other Sebastian County bridges, structures, buildings and monuments that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The five structures which have met the guidelines established by the National Park Service include the Coop Prairie Bridge in Mansfield on county road 236 over Coop Prairie Creek, the Hackett Creek Bridge on
Arkansas 45 over Hackett Creek, county bridges 4G and 5G located in Hartford and West Hartford that spans Sugar Loaf Creek and the Milltown Bridge near Milltown.
The Milltown Bridge is a historic stone arch that carries County Road 77 across an unnamed brook just west of its junction with White Mountain Road. It is a two-span closed spandrel structure, with each arch spanning 10 feet and a total length of 24 feet.
The arches are formed out of rough-cut stone voussoirs. It was built in the 1930s with funding from the Works Progress Administration, and was, when listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, one of only eight documented bridges of its type in the state
All four of the other bridges were accepted onto the list in May of 1995 after going through the nomination process. Although the four bridges are all listed for their architectural and engineering qualities, the Mansfield and Hackett bridges are both a mystery when it comes to the architect that designed the structures.
Both are listed as having been built in 1940 and 1941 respectively and are listed as open masonry substructure bridges.
The Sebastian County road bridges in Hartford and West Hartford are from the same time period but were designed and built by members of the Works Progress Administration under the administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Those bridges were built in 1940 and 1943 respectively.
Those ffiveare among the 40-plus sites listed in Sebastian County and are part of a program that lists almost 82,000 historic places nationwide.
Homes from the late 1800’s, the area that encompasses Devil’s Backbone where a civil war battle was held, several structures in Fort Smith and Greenwood and both the federal and county courthouses in Fort Smith are also examples of properties on the list.
Places on the National list are eligible for grants for historic preservation through the federal government. Sites can be nominated to state or local coordinators and basically any original structure over 50 years old with significant historical is eligible for inclusion on the list.
The National Register is administered by the National Park Service, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States’ official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation. It is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect our historic and archeological resources.
Properties listed in the Register include districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that are significant in American history, architecture, archeology, engineering, and culture.