As we rush toward the final Christmas of this decade, I wanted to take some time to thank all of you for your continued interest and support in making Whites Covered Bridge a reality again. I would also like to extend my heartfelt appreciation and thanks to the Whites Bridge Historical Society for their continued hard, selfless work in this endeavor.

As you all know by now, the completion date has been moved to July due to the difficulty in obtaining some of the many pieces to assemble the bridge. It should be noted that only 3, possibly 4, of this type covered bridge using the Brown Truss system were ever built which means that parts required for the construction are not something stocked at Lowes. Some of these parts required custom molds and casting be done to produce them.

The weather played a big part in the delay also. I live in Alma and we have received over 45 inches of rain this year. I am 55 and have never seen so much rain. In fact, coming down US-27 from Mt. Pleasant Thursday night after 10 PM, we saw combines out getting corn harvested because the ground was frozen enough to allow them to do so. I know if Alma got this much rain, Smyrna got a lot more. The weather also took a long time to warm up and then cooled off quick and we saw snow in early November. The Fire Retardant requires that the temperature be above 45 degrees to be effective and there is no way I would want the bridge to stand even a day without it considering that arson destroyed the last bridge. There is also safety that has to be considered as the workers will be working over the water once the trusses are set across the river, so yeah, I agree with Tom our engineer on the call he had to make. While we want the bridge back, we don’t want someone to get hurt or killed doing it.

I hope that y'all have a very Merry Christmas. We are blessed to live in a country where we, who do believe, have the freedom to celebrate Christmas without fear of imprisonment or death. Please remember that freedom is not free. As we celebrate the holiday with family, gifts and food there are thousands of our fellow Americans defending our freedom to do so half a world away, wishing they could be with their families instead of a foreign country where they could very well die keeping us free. I have been there and it hurts your heart but you know, politics aside, there is no place better than the United States of America. God bless you all!

Paul Phenix, Founder