Old bridge at Crystal Prong Crossing on the Ouachita Trail

While going through some old photos recently, I came across pictures of the bridge at Crystal Prong crossing on the Ouachita Trail.   They were taken in 2000, before the bridge washed away, which now makes them "historical".  

The Ouachita Trail still crosses the creek here at mile 177.2, but sans bridge.  It looks like the bridge will never be rebuilt, in keeping with the wilderness philosophy of not constructing or replacing man-made structures (this part of the OT traverses Flatside Wilderness).  

The hikers on the bridge are Dan Rifkin and his dog Trevor.  They now live in Pennsylvania.

Anyway...   the old bridge consisted of an "I-beam" with some boards attached to make the surface more level.  The "I-beam" was bolted to two huge concrete anchors at each end and the entire thing was wedged into the natural rock formation here, upstream.  You wouldn't blame anyone for thinking it was unmovable, rock solid and likely to stay for a long time.

Sometime around 2002-2003 (nots sure) the whole business washed away after a thunderstorm, including one of the concrete anchors. 

The bridge now rests about 30-40 feet downstream, under water.  Anyway...  I thought these old photos were worth posting, since the bridge is now 'history'.