Flashback 2007: Bridge Collapse in Mothman Country
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 6th, 2008
The annual Mothman Festival is upcoming for 2008.
In 2007, on Tuesday, September 4th, U.S. 35, the same highway carried by the Silver Bridge that collapsed in 1967, began to show signs of collapsing. It had to be closed due to the road finally collapsing about three miles south of town of Henderson, just across from Point Pleasant. On Wednesday, a shut down of U.S. 35 was begun, as the collapsed bridge road goes over a small creek and carries heavy truck traffic. It lasted throughout the week until repairs could be made. A contractor replaced the bridge with a 7 foot diameter pipe and crews worked for 24 hours a day until the road was open and traffic flowing once again.
Traffic had to be diverted to W.Va. 62 (the road used by the Scarberrys and Mallettes to try to outrun Mothman in 1966) at the exit into Point Pleasant and at the Buffalo Bridge. Large truck drivers were being told to take W.Va. 2 north toward Interstate 77.
“U.S. 35 shut itself down,” one official said.
After the collapse of the I-35W Bridge at Minneapolis, I wrote here of the coincidences in the air (see Bridge Collapse: Flashback to 1967 and Beyond Mothman: I-35W Blues). In a strange twist of fate, Ohio’s and West Virginia’s U.S. Highway 35 was the road carried over the Ohio by the Silver Bridge. Then in 2007, came news of this little U.S. 35 bridge collapse.
It appeared in Ohio and West Virginia, U. S. 35 was becoming more significant. U.S. Highway 35 has been the topic of discussion in 2007, in Charleston and Washington, D.C., as county leaders try to get funding for a new road that would be four-lanes from the existent four-lane highway in Henderson to Interstate 64 in Teays Valley. Construction on the Putnam County side of the road has been progressing with the Mason County portion set to turn dirt sometime soon.
Click image for a full size version. “The Curse Continues” © Charles Berlin 2007
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
