Engineer sees value in preservation

Eric DeLony, chief emeritus of the National Park Service's Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), advocates historic bridge preservation on a recent visit to the historic Wil-Cox Bridge over the Yadkin River. Submitted photo.

By Ann Brownlee

For The Salisbury Post

Eric DeLony had heard about the area’s historic bridges. So, on a recent visit to family in western North Carolina, he stopped by Salisbury and the Yadkin River.

DeLony spent his career with the National Park Service’s Historic American Engineering Record. From 1987 to 2003 he served as chief of the program established in 1969 to create a national archive of industrial, engineering and technological heritage. Since retiring, he has been an advocate of historic bridge preservation, and he serves on the Advisory Board of the Historic Bridge Foundation.

DeLony’ s first stop was on Ellis Street in Salisbury at the Shober Bridge, which carries traffic over the railroad right-of-way. It is one of the city’s two remaining timber bridges. After photographing that structure, he went on the Wil-Cox Bridge over the Yadkin with a group of state and local officials and preservationists.

Dr. Jeffrey Crow and Michael Southern had come from the Historic Preservation Office in Raleigh; Pat Ivey and Ralph Womble from the N.C. Department of Transportation in Winston-Salem; a number of county and tourism officials from Davidson County; and historic preservationists from Rowan County, including Historic Salisbury Foundation’s Ed Clement and Jack Thomson.

With the Wil-Cox Bridge behind him, he spoke of the necessity of preserving both bridges. “It’d be a shame not to celebrate these bridges, interpret them some way,” he said.

Both bridges had been closed for repairs. The Shober Bridge reopened in June. The Wil-Cox Bridge has been closed since April. An agreement with the DOT has been in place since last year allowing Davidson County to assume ownership of the bridge when the I-85 project is complete. Davidson County plans to use the Wil-Cox Bridge for pedestrians and bicycles.

“Any time that we can go in and work with the locals particularly on historic preservation, we certainly want to do that,” said Pat Ivey, NCDOT Division 9 Engineer. “We will be providing the county with about $2.5 million so they can make repairs and aesthetic improvements and have something they’ll be proud of.”

NCDOT would have typically spent the $2.5 million to demolish the bridge. Ivey said he thought this was the first time the state had entered into a project quite like this one.

Guy Cornman, Davidson County’s planning manager, told of his grandfather working on the construction of the Wil-Cox Bridge. “It’s very exciting for me, being able to take part in a preservation effort that my grandfather had to do with 85 years ago.”

He’s excited about bringing in tourists. “As an example, we have about 1,000 bicyclists in Lexington this weekend and I can just imagine having a race from Salisbury to Lexington coming across the Yadkin River in their colorful uniforms.”

The Wil-Cox Bridge is an open-spandrel concrete arch bridge, considered rare nationally. It is one of six in North Carolina, the longest at 1,299 feet , and the oldest-standing. It has been determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

DeLony hopes his visit helped bring attention to the importance of looking to a future for these two bridges which have played important roles in our past.