J.G.M. Parsons Bridge
This is an image set within the Bridgemeister collection.
| Bridge: | J.G.M. Parsons Bridge |
| Location: | Camperville vicinity, Manitoba, Canada |
| Image Set Contributor: | Wes Parsons |
| Related Image Lists: | All from Wes Parsons All in Manitoba All in Canada All Pedestrian Suspension Bridges |
| Credit: | All photos by Wes Parsons. Please do not reuse without permission. |
Wes writes: "There is a colorful story as to how this bridge on private land came to be. The bridge was built in approximately 1969. I used to live in the house which is actually a dovetail log home... My father was the local government rep at the time, and he never asked for anything for us. But after the government approved the municipal road that starts at the north most corner of provincial road 489 running one mile north so the neighbor's daughter didn't have to walk to the schoolbus, father said 'enough is enough!'... For years, that wonderful Pine River guarenteed us kids one or two unscheduled holidays a year! Before the bridge, the only way to get to 489 was either walk to the one room school house for the first 6 years, or to catch the bus later was by the use of a flat bottomed boat or barge on pulleys. Thus fall, or spring, the river would get moody and the ice in the fall might not be solid enough to walk on, but too thick to chop a path across the river. So day or more off from school. In the spring, the river would rise, and become unsafe to cross, so again, maybe a week off school. Course there was a down side, one time, we couldn't come home from school and had to stay at a neighbors. Thus, 'If they can have a road for one girl, surely we can have a footbridge for four!' And that is how the bridge came to be. It has a history since. It was originally slung too low, and was wiped out by ice, but rebuilt since we left the farm (in 1973). All kinds of things went over this bridge from sacks of flour to fuel barrels. Amazingly, even though we once got a cow over the river in the barge the bridge was never attempted for cow moving."
