I spent a good part of the morning watching the construction crew tear down the old First Street Bridge that spanned the West Fork River towards the Weston State Hospital on the west side of the river. The old bridge was lowered to the bottom of the river and dragged to the banks of the west side and most of it broke up during the moving. At 11:30 a.m. it was down and the new bridge was hoisted up and the crew stopped for dinner. In the afternoon they proceeded to raise the new bridge and send it across the river. At 1:15 p.m. it was lowered and set in place. What a spectacular event this was, with a great many of the towns people watching all the while. It rained a little and William Chapman and I sat in my car for a while, not wanting to miss anyof the action. William is one of the County Commissioners. I could not help but to think of my father, Luther M. Chapman walking across this bridge for forty-three years to work at the Polar Ice Co. up on Main Ave.

I saw my daughter Linda Jeanette Turner across the river taking pictures of this historical event, perhaps she will make a painting of it someday.

After the completion of setting the bridge in place, I walked across this new bridge and thought what a change from the old one.

The City of Weston was in charge of this project under the leadership of Mayor Wendell Hayes and City Clerk Jean Bennett.

The Montgomery Construction Company of Hurricane, West Virginia received the contract and preparation work was begun on June 25^th and construction work started on July 2^nd, 1984. The equipment used in this work was a crane identified by Pettibone (80) Krane and the hugh one by Mantowod 3900 T – Vicon with Tennessee license plates attached.

I suppost that a paint job will be forthcoming.

It all was a day to remember, thus the cause of this writing.