Weeds grow through cracked asphalt on the approach to the unused 107-year-old Fairground Street bridge.(The Vicksburg Post/C. TODD SHERMAN)

[02/03/02]What may be the oldest bridge in Mississippi may become part of plans to redevelop the Vicksburg waterfront and a possible U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ project.

City architect David Clement said plans are in early stages, but the city is working on a project to move the 107-year-old bridge at the foot of Fairground Street. He said it could be placed at the end of Jackson Street where the span, closed to traffic since 1995, could be used for pedestrians to cross the railroad tracks.

That would gain additional access to the waterfront site where city officials hope the MV Mississippi will be placed as part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers interpretive center.

“With the development that they’re doing, they have expressed an interest in having a bridge going across the railroad tracks,” Clement said. “The railroad wants to get rid of the bridge, and we’ve got a use for it.”

The bridge at the foot of Fairground Street was built by the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad when tracks were laid across the street. It was closed to traffic by the city after a routine inspection revealed corrosion and deterioration that made it unsafe.

Clement said he has not taken the city’s proposal to the railroad or the Corps, but the Mississippi Department of Archives and History has indicated to him the department would support the move.

He said one possible way to move the bridge would be to lift it up and place it on rail cars and using the tracks that run from Fairground Street to the waterfront.

“The bridge is probably not going to be too difficult to move,” Clement said.

He said the city is trying to get Kansas City Southern and the Corps together to discuss the project.

“The idea is really still in its infancy,” Clement said.

Funding for the project has not been identified yet, but could come from the city, as part of the Corps’ project or through TEA-21 grant funds. Congress has already approved $600,000 to fund a study for the interpretive center at the Vicksburg waterfront, but no funding has been approved for the project.

Mayor Laurence Leyens said he feels sure funding for the Corps project will be available in the fiscal year that begins in October. The project is expected to cost about $13 million.

In 1993, Kansas City Southern bought the tracks and property on Fairground Street from MidSouth Rail Corporation.

In 2000, Vicksburg residents Joe Strickland and James Hobson Jr. filed suit in Warren County Circuit Court seeking to compel the city to enforce an 1895 agreement with the railroad to repair and reopen the bridge. Strickland and Hobson own adjacent parcels, but the courts rejected their argument.

The case is on appeal to the state Supreme Court, but the litigation raised some questions about who owns the span. The railroad company contends it belongs to the city, and the city claims it is railroad property.

Leyens said no matter who owns the bridge, the city would take over ownership if it can be moved.

“We’d love to own that bridge,” Leyens said. “It’s an antique.”

The Fairground Street bridge is listed in tour guides and on the National Register of Historic Places, and some say it is the oldest in the state. It has two steel spans that are 81.9 feet and 91.6 feet long and is supported by stone piers.

The bridge was fabricated by the Phoenix Bridge Company in 1871 to be placed in Dubuque, Iowa, but later reconstructed and erected in 1895 on Fairground Street.