Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 34 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
o o o
It's an Ill Wind
Earlier this year (1991) the wind collapsed the roof of the covered bridge which spans the stream in Meech Creek Valley which normally carries traffic on the road known locally as the Cross Loop, so called because of the number of families with the name of Cross who once lived there and, with others, sacrificed, more or less unwillingly, their lands and homes to an unfulfilled dream for the installation of a zoo in the Valley. But before I forget, the roof had been fully restored and there are now no Cross people wanting to cross via their recovered bridge.
Bill Cross, who used to live with his wife Margot and family in the valley before being required to leave, says that his father Wyman Cross, one of eight brothers, undertook the responsibility for constructing the bridge in 1935. Bill had some snapshots showing the erection which was performed by teams of men. One photo is of six of the builders engaged on various jobs on the structure. Others were handling teams of horses to move material needed on the site. While the project was looked upon as a community effort most of the men were employees of Wyman Cross. At times, however, the teams and drivers from other farms were required to augment those of Cross. As it was haying it was not always convenient to spare men and horses but spared they were.
Apparently there had been an earlier bridge about 40 feet or so downstream witch had been built by one, Daly, with Cumming or Cummings in colonization days.
In 1935, the timber and related supplies were contracted for by A.J. Amyot of Hull. The wood and materials were delivered to the site on the eleventh of July and construction began on the 15th. It seems that some ingenuity was displayed in anchoring the roof to the main body of the construction, a job that had not been tackled before, as unlike a barn or house, a covered bridge is of course open-ended to allow passage through its body. By the twenty eighth of July the job was completed with an application of paint. An accomplishment of epic proportions in a couple‑of weeks.
With completion of the bridge one would think the story concluded but unfortunately that was not the case. While construction had been level and true, a problem showed up requiring immediate attention if the newly built bridge was to serve the purpose for which it was designed. It appears that one end of the bridge met the road at too acute an angle. In other words the transfer from the level of the bridge flooring to the road surface was not smooth enough. The need was to take out the "bump". Applying the ingenuity as earlier called upon in the erection of the bridge the problem was met and solved.
P.S. Not to be outdone by husband Bill, his wife Margot, who had been a Miss Wright before her marriage, delighted in showing her visitors a prized heirloom, a beautifully resilvered, mounted and framed teaspoon once belonging to her ancestor Abigail (Wyman) Wight, wife of Philemon. The spoon had been engraved with the initials A.W. which could of course stand for either Abigail Wyman of Abigail Wright.