Of the two remaining double-cantilever bridges in Arkansas, the one colloquially known as the Blue Bridge in Newport seemed to have the best chance to survive.
After all, the city had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department agreeing to take over maintenance of the bridge with the idea the 86-year-old span over the White River would be turned into a pedestrian crossing, an undertaking estimated to cost about $1.7 million.
Under the agreement, the money the department was to set aside to dismantle the bridge -- about $1 million -- would be used to help revamp the bridge into a pedestrian-friendly crossing that would include lighting, security cameras and a walkway connecting the bridge to the city's downtown.
Supporters of the project committed other money that would go with a $500,000 grant the city sought from a department program that provides federal money for recreational trails and other nonroad facilities.
But momentum on the project evaporated when that grant was denied. And last week, the Newport City Council voted 8-0 to return the bridge to the Highway Department.
Whether that is the end of the bridge remains to be seen.
The city hasn't formally notified the department of its intentions. And department officials note another round of grants will be awarded this spring.
"At this point, if the Highway Department calls, I would be open to holding further discussions," said Newport Mayor David Stewart.
But the City Council's action stirred concern among preservationists.
"In terms of our Arkansas history, it's a tragedy. Period," said Porter Briggs, a Little Rock businessman who has helped with efforts to preserve a nearly identical bridge over the White River at Clarendon. "History matters. These bridges are a big part of it."
But Jon Chadwell, the executive director of the Newport Economic Development Commission and a bridge booster, said the council was being prudent.
The bridge is "an important part of Newport's history" and the proposed project could've been an important part of the city's future as a "place to live and work and raise a family," he said. "I also realize it would take a good bit of money. When the grant funding wasn't there, it was the best decision they could make.
"I'm not upset, but I'm sort of sad," Chadwell said.
The bridge that takes Arkansas 367 across the White River hasn't always been sky blue -- the paint was added in the 1970s -- but its strong attachment to the community is reflected in the name of the city's art center, the Blue Bridge Center for the Delta Arts. Its annual art show, which will be held F̶e̶b̶.̶ ̶2̶8̶ Feb. 27*, attracts about 2,000 art patrons to the Jackson County seat, home to 7,731.
The bridge is one of three on the White River designed by the late Ira Hedrick, a University of Arkansas engineering graduate who went on to become one of the South's "outstanding" bridge engineers, according to the 1925 Who's Who in Engineering.
The bridge at Augusta, considered the Newport bridge's twin, is already gone, having been torn down on Sept. 12, 2001, according to the Highway and Transportation Department. The other Hedrick design, at Clarendon, also has supporters trying to save it.
The bridges were three of nine crossings the state built in the early 1930s through a bond issue financed with tolls.
With a low bid of $218,662, Missouri Valley Bridge and Iron Co. of Leavenworth, Kan., was awarded the contract on May 15, 1929, to build the Newport bridge. List and Weatherly Construction Co. of Kansas City, Mo., was awarded a $239,662 contract to build the bridge approaches.
A two-day celebration to mark completion of the bridge took place Sept. 10 and 11, 1930, which coincided with Newport's centennial celebration, according to the Historic American Engineering Record history of the bridge. Festivities for the 7,500 estimated people in attendance included a parade, fireworks, a street dance and queen's ball. U.S. Sen. T.H. Caraway, D-Ark., was among the dignitaries.
At the time, the bridge was on storied U.S. 67, then the main route between Little Rock and St. Louis. A total of 220 vehicles crossed the bridge on Sept. 18, the first official day of its operation.
For a car, the toll was 50 cents, according to the Historic American Engineering Record. Trucks were charged between 50 cents and $1. Livestock was charged at the rate of 5 cents a head. Pedestrians crossed at no charge.
As the effort to save the Newport bridge falters, supporters of the Clarendon bridge are still working to help preserve that structure. But the Highway and Transportation Department long has had an agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the bridge, which opened in 1931 and cost $1.5 million. The bridge replacing it cost $34.1 million.
The old bridge's western approach is in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. Under an agreement with the federal agency, the bridge and approaches have to be demolished, the demolished materials removed and the right of way restored to the "natural topography," including the re-establishment of native hardwoods, according to a "compatibility determination" document the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed in 2007.
But local supporters want to convert the historic U.S. 79 bridge to a crossing for cyclists, hikers, bird-watchers and other outdoor enthusiasts through one of largest remaining tracts of contiguous bottomland hardwood forest on the North American continent.
"We still have a steep hill to climb," said Little Rock businessman Briggs.
And with the likely loss of the Newport bridge, he said, the effort to save the Clarendon bridge "is even more important now."
Metro on 01/11/2016
*CORRECTION: The eighth annual Delta Visual Arts Show in Newport will be held Feb. 27. This article gave an incorrect date.