BRIDGE RESCUE !!

After 4 years of effort to save it, the Craig Bridge was saved from the scrap heap late in November, just days before it was slated to be demolished.  The last minute rescue was pulled off by a Helena family with a business that seeks to adopt the bridge.  With strong support from Governor Schweitzer, Lt.Governor Bohlinger and staff of the Montana Department of Transportation, Mike & Scott Nelson are taking in the orphaned bridge rather than seeing it forever gone.  The bridge will move off the Missouri River and into Helena where its new home will be the grounds of the former State Nursery. The old nursery site is fittingly historic, and the bridge will span the waters of Helena’s Ten Mile Creek which braids through the 104 acre site. 

The rescue of the bridge may make news beyond Montana -- Megamovers, the History Channel’s program on moving improbable structures, has been preparing to film the removal of the bridge from the site where it has stood for the past 102 years.  The bridge will be broken into 3 spans each weighing 20 tons, lifted from its moorings set on the shores of the river. From there the bridge will be moved to a site near Hardy Creek where it will be further dismantled in the spring for its trip into Helena. “It can come apart like a big erector set and be put back together like a big erector set,” says Scott Nelson, who is eager to rescue the bridge.  “We felt it would be a slap in the face to take a portion of the bridge and let the rest go to the scrap heap,” Nelson said. “The structure needs to be saved and it’s looking like we’ll be able to do that.”