Sunday, May 10, 2009
Mysteries Searching for the Riverside Park Bridge
Posted by Vance Lauderdale on Sun, May 10, 2009 at 8:22 PM
This sounds like a strange confession, I suppose, but I actually enjoy finding old postcards that show scenes in Memphis that are unfamiliar. It gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning — because there's something about my twisted mind that says, "I must find that same spot today." And then when I do, and compare the now-and-then images, well ... it's curiously satisfying.
Just as it is damn frustrating when I can not find the image depicted on the card.
And here is a perfect example. A rather dull postcard, really, showing an old car, or possibly a delivery van, crossing (or parked on), a fine-looking stone bridge in Riverside Park (nowadays known as Martin Luther King Riverside Park). We know this because it's actually printed on the front of the card. The back of the card, just so you'll know, give us no clues: it was never used, and never stamped or postmarked, so it doesn't give us a date.
Sorry for the moire pattern caused by my cheap scanner, folks. (Moire? Look it up.) Anyway, if you scrutinize the card, all you'll glean is that the roadway seems to run parallel to a rather deep chasm and then takes an abrupt turn — maybe not a 90-degree turn, but a turn nevertheless — and crosses over a really fine stone bridge, with stone posts at each end. I can't tell if the bridge spans a creek or just a ditch, and I also can't tell what the road does on the other side. The landscape in the background is frustratingly vague. But here's the thing: I've driven all over Riverside Park, and — unless I'm missing something — there is no place where the road does this, and more to the point, there is no stone bridge.
So where was this? My readers — okay, make that ONE reader — very quickly found the location of the building that I thought was an old school (see the post below about the Calvary Rescue Mission), so once again I turn to you for help. Find this location today, please, so I can get some rest.
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I've gone up & down Riverside Park (and WAY beyond in both directions) in my mind and can not see where this is/was/could-have-been. The truck (or is it a horse-drawn wagon?) is before my time (I'm 59).
If you find the answer, please post.
Emory Smith
Of course the park has changed much over the years. I realize that the golf course takes up a good chunk of land, so it's possible that fairways now stand where this road, bridge, and ditch used to be. When was the golf course added, I wonder?
Maybe this should go in the file with those postcards that depict the river as a lovely shade of blue.
Where is the river, anyway? Maybe that's a clue.
Einstein had a theory, too. Please share yours with us, Joe.
Another curiosity about Riverside Park that I have never been able to find any information was told to me by my English teacher at Whitehaven High School in the 70’s. She told that there was a cave or room down the bluff near the river that was used to store gunpowder and ammunition during the Civil War. Anyone else ever heard of this bit of history?
I have also heard that story, Memphis Dan.
Did anyone look on the golf course? Maybe it was incorporated into the course.
I swear this looks like it could be the bridge that goes over Riverside Drive from the South Bluffs apartment complex into the edge of Tom Lee Park. It's metal now but for some reason it was the first thing that came to mind, no idea why. Maybe the card was labeled incorrectly.
Hey Memphis Dan. One of the Indian mounds in DeSoto Park (right across from the entrance to the National Ornamental Metal Museum) was hollowed out and used for gunpowder storage during the Civil War. That arched entrance, now sealed by a bricked-up door, is easily visible from the street (Metal Museum Drive). So your teacher was right; she just had the wrong park.
The stretch of Riverside Drive that runs alongside the river wasn't constructed until the early 1930s, mainly as a means of shoring up the unstable bluff, which had an unfortunate tendency to slough off and slide into the river, one time taking an entire freight train (and locomotive) with it. (That engine is still there, now buried in the silt — it's true!). So this can't possibly be a bridge over Riverside Drive. It's much older than that.
Way back in the day, where the old I-55 bridge hits the Tennessee side, there was a park where that old hotel sits. (It is in front of the metal museum). This was called Riverside Park. I have seen pictures of the old old bridge back when the RR ran in between East and West bound traffic and this looks like it could be the on set to the West bound side. You can still drive under it today. Does anyone know where I am talking about?
Momma, I have driven under the railroad bridge many times and I have been to the park. The postcard does seem to be off the river and I wonder if it is in Overton Park instead.
Vance, I just looked up 'Riverside Park' on google maps and can find only one location where there would be such a small bridge. It could be possible that they expanded the road and had to build a wider bridge.
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