Roads, bridges and railroads that once served communities but are now long forgotten.
A special thanks to the Lloyd family of Asheville, North Carolina for donating some potentially never-before-seen historical photos of the old L&N Railroad Bridge at Danville, Tennessee. The photos were from a family member who was the engineer for the L&N Railroad bridge during the construction in 1931-1932.
Michael Hale sent us photos of the old railroad that once went through Hardin, Kentucky, known last as the Hardin Southern Railroad.
You can read about the history of Hardin Southern Railroad here.
Mr. Hale tells us the passenger car photos are from 1986 and 1987, just three years or so after the line was severed from Hardin to Paducah. The other photos are from around 1999-2000.
Several years ago, right after we had our first child, we were treated with an afternoon off from our little guy and ventured out into the vast woods of Land Between The Lakes.
The destination was Pryor Creek, just south of the KY/TN border near Lake Barkley. We were on the hunt for an old abandoned bridge, and with some luck, we found it. We went in the summertime and had to fight ticks, mosquitoes and a lot of overgrowth.
Recently I decided to take advantage of a warm winter day to revisit the Pryor Creek bridge ruins and see if I could get better photos. With all the briers and vegetation gone, it would be a lot easier to get to. It was good to get these photos!
Lake Barkley recently turned 50. The US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) built Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River near Grand Rivers in the early 1960s. The dam birthed Lake Barkley – a shallow sister of Kentucky Lake, just a few miles east of its sibling.
