For as long has he can remember, Steven Caldwell has been at once curious and fascinated by history — its places, its people and even the worn thoroughfares he has traveled.
Two years ago, that curiosity, he said, led him down an old gravel road to Rogers Bridge, a rare and unaltered metal truss and the longest single-span crossing in Georgia.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” the 61-year-old construction worker said the other day.
In fact, Caldwell was so taken aback by the majesty of the old structure and its surroundings he took his wife, Barbara, to the site a week later.
The two of them, Caldwell said, thought then it would be nice to be able to walk that distance again and behold the beauty of the surrounding acres, to maybe gather dinner from its fishing spots.
“I’d like to see it converted into at least a bikeway just because it goes over the river,” said Caldwell.
The Lawrenceville couple could one day get their wish.
A 44-acre riverfront tract that adjoins the bridge is the latest acquisition in the National Park Service’s long-range plan to preserve 48 miles of the Chattahoochee River below Buford Dam. Park officials and elected leaders in Fulton and Gwinnett counties would like to restore the bridge for walkers and cyclists.
If successful, the bridge could transform the recreational experience of the Caldwells and other metro Atlantans. For the first time, walkers and cyclists would be able to go from one side of the river to the other without having to drive five miles around.
The bridge could open up hundreds of acres of protected land to neighbors on both sides of the river wishing to explore its beauty.
Not only do local city and county officials hope to give the old bridge a badly needed face lift, they want to create the first ever pedestrian- and bicycle-only link between Gwinnett and Fulton counties.
It all began in the mid-1990s when the Chattahoochee River was named one of the 10 most endangered waterways in the country due to pollution and unchecked development, both from ground water runoff and insufficient pollution control.
“It was a hair on fire moment,” said Debra Edelson, the Chattahoochee River program manager for the Trust for Public Land. “We needed to do something.”
The trust, she said, launched the Chattahoochee River Land Protection Campaign, a cooperative effort with other conservation organizations, including the National Parks Service, the Nature Conservancy and the State Department of Natural Resources.
Not only did they want to protect the river, Edelson said, they wanted to create a network of green spaces along the Chattahoochee that residents could enjoy.
“A decade later we’ve conserved over 76 miles of river frontage on 16,000 acres between Helen ... and Columbus,” she said.
From vision to reality
The Trust for Public Land is a national nonprofit created 40 years ago in San Francisco to conserve land for people like Caldwell to enjoy.
For the past 10 years, Edelson said, the agency has been working to save this part of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, a 48-mile stretch that runs from Buford Dam at the bottom of Lake Lanier to Peachtree Creek in Atlanta.
The Chattahoochee Campaign was launched and some $52 million in private funds were raised. Then an additional $91 million was contributed from federal and state agencies for a total of $143 million.
Last October, the agency purchased the 44-acre Rogers parcel, valued at $2.91 million, from a developer who had planned to build 32 large homes in Johns Creek. It resembles a large flowering meadow with a view of the Chattahoochee and the old bridge.
At the time, Edelson said they expected money would be appropriated to the National Park Service to buy the land from the TPL, but Congress only gave the park service half the money it needed to make the purchase. Because of this, she said, the TPL decided instead to donate the remaining 22 acres of pristine grasslands and river frontage to the National Park Service.
“In this day and age of budget cutting and reduction in government services, this is a unique example of government giving to the taxpayers in a real tangible way,” said Edelson.
“For 10 years, we worked to save this land because of its beauty, historic bridge and importance to creating a network of green spaces along the river,” she said. “This donation is another important step in turning that vision into reality.”
Local priorities
Caldwell and his wife Barbara welcomed the news and say they look forward to the day they can walk the span of the bridge and enjoy access to the Chattahoochee.
That day, however, could be still far off.
“There are right now no final plans to do that but it is everyone’s dream,” said Patty Wissinger is superintendent of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, which President Jimmy Carter designated a national park area in 1978. Wissinger called the old bridge a shell of its former self.
The donated land, she said, is a protected haven for wildlife and plants.
“It contributes to higher quality of water for the river, which means all of us will have higher quality drinking water but also recreation for people,” she said.
Wissinger said that while there are no immediate plans to develop the area, she anticipates building a trail system that will connect with the cities of Johns Creek and Duluth and both county greenway systems some day.
So far, Duluth, Gwinnett County and Johns Creek have emerged as potential partners in restoring the Rogers Bridge. Johns Creek hosted a party last month at the foot of the old bridge to honor the TPL’s donation.
At the celebration, Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker told the crowd that the city, its neighborhoods and businesses benefit from the donation.
But in an interview later with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bodker said he hadn’t been able to convince his City Council to do its part in restoring the bridge.
“I think that Rogers Bridge represents an important regional gateway that would open Fulton up to Gwinnett for pedestrians and bikers and create a beautiful vista over the Chattahoochee and would also connect some beautiful parks on both sides of the river,” he said.
But he said the fastest path to getting this bridge restored is to find private funds to complement those funds already allocated by Gwinnett County and the city of Duluth. An estimate pegged the restoration cost at $1.25 million, according to Duluth City Manger Phil McLemore.
Johns Creek Councilman Randall Johnson said the City Council agreed in a work session a month ago that restoring the bridge would be something nice to do.
“But it’s a matter of priorities,” he said. “To me it’s just not as high a priority as other transportation-related projects. If we’re going to spend the money, I’d rather it be on such things as traffic and intersection improvements.”
Bodker, on the other hand, said he is personally committed to this effort.
“It’s just beautiful land and a real treasure the trust was able to acquire it and gift it,” he said. “The only thing that would make it better is have the bridge restored.”
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