O&W Bridge
The O&W Bridge, short for Oneida & Western Railroad Bridge, is a bridge across the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River west of Oneida, Tenn. Originally built as a railroad bridge in 1915, the steel and wooden bridge is today used as a pedestrian and vehicular bridge. It is located in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
See Also: Scott County’s Historic Places
History
The O&W Bridge is a Whipple through truss bridge that was originally built in the 1880s and served another railroad. In 1915, the Nashville Bridge Company moved the bridge to the Big South Fork River and reassembled it as the O&W Railroad was being built between Oneida and Jamestown.
Construction of the O&W began at the Cincinnati Southern Railway in Oneida on Nov. 4, 1913. The O&W Bridge was built in June 1915. The railroad reached East Jamestown in 1930.
At its peak, the O&W featured three daily passenger round trips. But it was primarily a coal and lumber bridge, used to move products out of the mining and logging camps west of the river. The railroad began to decline by the 1930s, and the last train ran on March 31, 1954.
Current Usage
Following the abandonment of the O&W Railroad, the O&W Bridge has served a variety of purposes. The former railroad grade became popular among off-road enthusiasts in the 1950s and 1960s, prior to the establishment of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area in 1974. At one point, however, the bridge itself became impassible due to missing timbers.
The National Park Service proposed in the 1990s to close the bridge and use it only for pedestrian and equestrian purposes. Scott County Government objected, claiming ownership of the bridge. Under a deal struck in 2004, the NPS ceded to the county’s claim, and agreed to leave the road and bridge open to the Scott County-Fentress County line at North White Oak Creek, approximately 1.3 miles beyond the O&W Bridge. At that point, the road was closed, and the remainder of the former railroad grade through Fentress County is a multi-use trail open to hikers, equestrian riders and mountain bikers.
The O&W Bridge is a popular take-out for whitewater paddlers who are paddling the stretches of the Big South Fork River known as The Gorge and The Canyon, between the confluence of New River and Clear Fork River and the O&W Bridge. It is also a part of the John Muir Trail and Sheltowee Trace National Recreation Trail, two long-distance trails that traverse the Big South Fork NRRA.
Revitalization
In 2017, the bridge was in danger of being closed due to its state of disrepair. Working with the Industrial Development Board of Scott County, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce obtained a tourism grant from the State of Tennessee to refurbish the bridge. The $94,000 project was completed by the Scott County Road Department, and saw all wooden components on the bridge replaced with new timbers, and new fencing installed. The bridge and the road were closed from March 6, 2017 until April 12, 2017 while the work was completed.
2023 Controversy
In February 2023, Scott County Commission voted 14-0 to approve a resolution authorizing an application for federal funding to replace the bridge. The funding, which could only be used for the O&W Bridge and could only be used to replace the bridge with a new structure, would have been used to remove the steel and wood bridge and replace it with a concrete bridge. The TN Dept. of Transportation estimated the cost of the project to be $4.8 million.
After more than 8,500 people signed a petition asking the county to save the bridge, County Commission voted unanimously a month later to rescind the resolution and establish a committee tasked with exploring ways to preserve the bridge and have it placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
According to a TDOT inspection of the O&W Bridge in 2022, it had a sufficiency rating of 48.3. TDOT orders bridges closed when their sufficiency rating drops below 13.
As of County Commission’s March 2023 meeting, the debate continued over whether to close the bridge to vehicular traffic and use it as a pedestrian bridge or leave it open to vehicular traffic as long as it is structurally safe to do so.
At a meeting on July 17, 2023, County Commission voted 13-0 to apply for the O&W Bridge to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge was approved for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places in December 2025. A dedication ceremony was held July 24, 2026, to recognize the new designation.
2024 Traffic Stoppage
In Autumn 2024, vehicular access to O&W Bridge was closed after the Tennessee Department of Transportation condemned a bridge over Pine Creek along O&W Road, ordering it closed. The bridge was located near O&W Road’s intersection with Toomey Road, just outside the boundary of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area.
The bridge reopened in May 2026.