Old NC 10 Slocum Creek Bridge

Update: this bridge has been demolished

At one time in its history, for less than a quarter of a century, this narrow girder bridge carried the most important highway in North Carolina, NC 10, also known as the Central Highway. It was built in 1924, at the height of what is referred to as the Good Roads Movement, when roads were being constructed and improved for the automobile. While its 20-foot-wide deck is well below modern safety standards, it was sufficiently wide for the primitive cars of the era to pass one another on. Later, however, cars became wider, NC 10 became US 70, and Cherry Point Marine Corp Air Station was built, all of which no doubt put a strain on the small structure. It was bypassed by a new bridge and a straighter alignment of US 70 in 1944, which was probably done due to wartime demands. Because of this, the bridge remains largely unmodified and exists as a rare relic from the state's first major highway.

The structure itself is a basic above-deck concrete girder bridge with three spans. While the "walls" of the bridge appear to the average driver as mere railings, they do in fact function as the bridge's sole horizontal supports, and if one were to be obliterated the entire span would probably collapse if under load. While the underside of the bridge is flat, as if the entire deck were a slab, there are probably heavy steel reinforcements that meet the girders perpendicularly and function as floor beams. The recessed imprints on the concrete girders are nearly identical to those found on the railings of tee-beam and arch bridges built in the state during the 1920s. While there are many tee-beam bridges from this period that remain (a number of which were widened in the 1940s and 50s), concrete girder bridges are very rare, perhaps because few were built or because they cannot be widened.

Both of the plaques remain on this bridge, providing a solid date of its construction. It was built back before road construction projects were subsidized by the federal government, and when the NCDOT was called the North Carolina State Highway Commission. Hopefully this bridge will be recognized for its historical nature, especially since it lies in a part of the state with very few historical bridges. I'm not, however, optimistic about its future. The piers of the bridge appear to be decaying, with one being supplemented by temporary steel supports.

Facts

• Year built: 1924
• Route Carried: NC-1763 (formally NC 10 and later, US 70)
• Crosses: Slocum Creek
• Location: Havelock, Craven County, NC
• Design: Concrete girder
• Length of largest span: 39 ft. Total length: 116 ft.
• Inside width: 20 ft., two lanes
• National Bridge Inventory ID: 490176
• Coordinates: 34°53'28.02"N, 76°55'23.69"W

Pictures

• Left: an oblique shot of all three spans. Center & Right: portal views, facing south and north, respectively.

• Left: a shot of the middle span. Center: one of the bridge plaques. Right: the wooden form imprints on the underside.