Springfield-Des Arc Bridge | Faulkner County Historical Society

From 1874 to 2016 the Springfield-Des Arc bridge spanned North Cadron Creek but now — due to efforts by the Faulkner County Historical Society and the City of Conway — this bowstring iron truss bridge (the oldest bridge in Arkansas and one of the oldest of its type in the United States) has been restored and reconstructed at Conway’s Beaverfork Park. (More info here…)

Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, the bridge fell into disrepair after it was replaced by a modern concrete bridge in 1991. Vandals tagged it with graffiti and damaged it with fire. PHOTOS taken of the bridge in October, 2007 clearly show its rag-tag condition.

In 2012, Workin’ Bridges, a non-profit organization that works to restore historic iron bridges, evaluated the structure and proposed its restoration. The Faulkner County Historical Society lobbied local authorities on behalf of the restoration, which resulted in the City of Conway agreeing to take ownership of the bridge and move it to Beaverfork Lake, where it now spans a cove and connects two portions of the park.

In November 2016, the process of restoration and repair began when the bridge was lifted from its abutments (VIDEO here). The project was dedicated in September, 2017.

The PBS’s nationally-distributed television show Ultimate Restorations filmed the lift of the bridge and plans an episode about this successful preservation project.

Read the history of the Springfield-Des Arc Bridge from the Fall-Winter 1987 issue of our Faulkner Facts and Fiddlings journal.