FOCUS: Staff craftsmen to fix Magnolia’s iconic white bridge

Photos courtesy Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.

Staff reports  |  It will be another two months before visitors can walk over the iconic white bridge at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.  It will take that long for skilled staff craftsmen to fix it after a tree fell on it last week.

“It was a maple tree at the water’s edge and obviously it was bad on the inside,” said attraction director Tom Johnson.  “With all of this rain and stuff, it kind of half uprooted and fell on our bridge.”

The tree had not been on the staff’s radar screen as being a potential problem so it was a pretty big surprise when it fell, Johnson said.

Fortunately, most of the damage was superficial.  The much-photographed bridge, built back in the 1840s, remains structurally sound.  

“We pulled the decking off and found the main structure is solid,” he said.  “It’s made of 1-foot-by-1-foot cypress posts driven 16-feet down into the ground.  Can you imagine that — 16 feet that far back?  There’s been some extra bracing done since Hurricane Hugo” 31 years ago.

Johnson said his team had planned to restore the bridge prior to last week’s damage because some of the railing had loosened.

“We just didn’t get to do it in our timeline,” he said. “We’re having to do it on the universe’s timeline.”

He said his team was sourcing cypress timber to replace what was damaged.  After that, it will take four to six weeks to repair the bridge.  If everything goes as planned, it will be open again by mid-September.

The plantation and gardens, one of the region’s most popular attractions, is open seven days a week.  Tours have resumed, but at diminished capacity to provide social distancing.  Visitors have to get their temperatures taken and complete a medical questionnaire to be admitted.  To learn more about what’s going on at Magnolia, click here.