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On my land the Little Noxubee River goes right through the middle of my property making it really hard to get to some of the best woods. Any medium to hard rain and there is no crossing the river. So what does a person do? He builds a bridge.

Here is a look at the river crossing before I started. It is a push out that the loggers made when the timber was cut years ago. The span is 45 feet.



First thing to do was drill and set poles for cable. Poles were 20 feet long and buried 6 feet in the ground and concreted.



Then you set the dead falls. Bottom cable dead falls are 5 feet long and buried with 200lbs of concrete each. The Top cable dead falls are 5ft screw in anchors.




Then you lock the poles together with 8 inch lag bolts, Drill through all for cable and level the ground to bridge level.





Then you pull the cables dead fall to one end and attaché the other to turn buckles for easy adjustment.
Bottom cable is ¾ in cable top cable is ½ guide wire terminating to a center support in the middle of the bridge.


Attach 4 by 4’s to cable with U bolts spaced at 20 inches apart. Notice that since I had ¾ cable left I put a cross cable in the middle of the bridge for added support to the lumber.



Then you mount your runners on and level the bridge.


Only thing left to do is test it out…
Tested it with almost 2000 pounds of weight and would only rock a bit.
Sweet victory…

Wait a minute, have you got all that lumber stretched out and installed on nothing but cable? I'm only on my phone right now and can't tell exactly what I'm looking at from the pics.

That sounds like some serious feats of engineering!!

Wow!!

I like it. Pretty simple concept. But still a lotta work.

Wildfowler wrote:Wait a minute, have you got all that lumber stretched out and installed on nothing but cable? I'm only on my phone right now and can't tell exactly what I'm looking at from the pics.

That sounds like some serious feats of engineering!!

Wow!!

Yeah it is all on 3/4 inch cable. standard Swinging bridge concept.

Yes Anatidate it was a lot of work but will be well worth it.

Most things you work hard for usually are, eh?

I like that a lot. Very well done.

Dan THA MAN...get after em boys

That is impressive.

Best post on here for a while. Looks like an answer to a lot of people's problems.

How did you sink the 20ft poles?

The center metal plate that the upper wire attaches too- was that welded before time or once the wires were in place. 1/2 thick steel for that plate?

What is the hollow round thing in the pic that shows the turn buckles where they attach to the deadfalls?

How deep were the dead falls?

What was the hardest part?

That's a great build Dan!

Thanks for Sharing.

We have built a few on our land, but nothing a few light poles wouldn't span.

That will make your property so much more enjoyable.

Blackduck wrote:Best post on here for a while. Looks like an answer to a lot of people's problems.

How did you sink the 20ft poles?

The center metal plate that the upper wire attaches too- was that welded before time or once the wires were in place. 1/2 thick steel for that plate?

What is the hollow round thing in the pic that shows the turn buckles where they attach to the deadfalls?

How deep were the dead falls?

What was the hardest part?

The Poles were set by drilling the holes with a tractor auger. We then used the tractor front end loader with forklifts to raise the poles on one end and pushed as we went forward to have them drop in the holes. Leveled and concreted.

I had a welding shop make the middle place out of ½ inch medal plate and a steal Pipe. Yes it was made in advanced and strung on the cable as before I pulled the cable trough the poles.

The hollow pipe that you see is a 5 foot length of 8 inch diameter Pipe that has brackets welded on for the turnbuckle to be attached via a 6x1 inch case hardened bolt. The pipe was concreted in both inside and around the pipe. The pipe holes were drilled at an angle away from the bridge location.

I would say the hardest part was working with the guide wire. If I had it to do all over again I would have used regular steel cable for the top support as well because the guide wire cable is really hard to bend on the ends to clamp.

The poles were set last year and I have been buying material a little at a time until I had what I needed to complete the job.

As an engineer, I have to say well done, very nice job.

That's crazy. Well done!

mfalkner wrote:As an engineer, I have to say well done, very nice job.

As nothing more than an ole redneck here, I have to say well done, very good job!

That's impressive Dan, thanks for sharing.

I can't tell from the small pictures, but how did you armour your back fill at the bridge ends to ensure the river want erode it away next flood?