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Kesler or County Line, Banks County

If you find errors in the data please contact Bill Caswell.

If you would like to provide information on covered bridges that no longer exist from your state, or adopt a state to work on, we would certainly welcome your assistance. Please contact Trish Kane for more information.

Inventory Number: GA/10-06-11x / GA-59-02x
TLF Number: 19C
County: Banks County / Franklin County
Township:
Town/Village: Urena (Uvena)
Bridge Name: Kesler or County Line
Crosses: Middle Fork Broad River
Truss type: Queen & King
Spans: 2
Length: 75'
Roadway Width:
Built: c1925
Builder:
When Lost: c1978
Cause:
Latitude: N34 25.740
Longitude: W083 22.956
See a map of the area
Topographic map of the area
Directions: County Line Road west of Urena (Uvena).

Kesler Bridge, Urena, Banks County, GA. Built c1925 Lost Winter 1980/1981
Trish Kane/Richard Donovan Collection

Kesler Bridge, Urena, Banks County, GA. Built c1925 Lost Winter 1980/1981
July 1966 Photo, Palmer Werner Collection

Kesler Bridge, Urena, Banks County, GA. Built c1925 Lost Winter 1980/1981
Edgar Q. Rooker Photo, March 26, 1970, NSPCB Archives

Comments:
Kesler Bridge was named for the Kesler family who lived in the area. At the formation of Banks County in December 1858 (from Franklin County and Habersham County), Kesler Bridge is mentioned as one of the coordinates for the new boundary. This bridge was reported as gone in March 1963. According to the Georgia DOT website, the weight of snow on the bridge caused it to collapse. However, covered bridge enthusiasts were still getting photos as late as 1970. One account says it went out in 1978 when the nearby landowner decided to burn the bridge to end the trespassing of his land. However, the bridge was included in a 1978 Covered Bridge Topics article about recently visited Georgia bridges. The Fall 1981 Topics (page 15) has a photo of the remains of the bridge stating that it was lost during the winter of 1980-81. The Winter 1982 Topics (page 9) states that it collapsed and was washed away in 1979. The road was effectively bypassed by the construction of SR63 about ¼ mile to the west. The 1951 Banks County Roadmap shows this crossing as a covered bridge. The Queen truss was on the south end and the King truss on the north end.

Sources:
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ga/county/banks/htmlpagesbanks/keslerbridge.html
Georgia Department of Transportation. Georgia's Covered Bridge Graveyard, 2002, http://wwwb.dot.ga.gov/specialsubjects/specialinterest/covered/graveyd/index.shtml (3 November 2009)
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ga/county/banks/htmlpagesbanks/keslerbridge.html
National Society For the Preservation of Covered Bridges. Covered Bridge Topics, Volume XXXVI, No. 3, Summer 1978, page 8
Theodore Burr Covered Bridge Society of Pennsylvania. Portals, Volume 6, number 2 (June 1966), page 7

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