Nashville Toll Bridge brings national interest

• More historic study done on Nashville Toll Bridge remnants as National Park Service sends team for photographic survey.

Continued interest in the history of the Nashville Toll Bridge, built in 1823, brought a team from the National Park Service to do a photographic survey, which was completed Saturday.

The Nashville Toll Bridge remains are under the Victory Memorial Bridge that connects to James Robertson Parkway. The bridge is believed to be the city's first bridge and the first in Tennessee to cross the entire Cumberland River.

The bridge was recently designated as a certified site on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail used by the Cherokee.

There also is interest in the bridge's relevance to early American engineering and bridge building and its designer Lewis Wernwag, known for a number of important bridges during the time period.

The Nashville Toll Bridge's remnants include abutments on the east and west sides. The west side abutment, about 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide, is visible from the Gay Street Connector in Nashville and remains in excellent condition.

"The fact that it has this amount of integrity is very impressive and worth saving and preserving," said Christopher Marston, project leader for the Historic American Engineering Record who conducted the survey with New Mexico-based photographer Martin Stupich.

The Native History Association, which discovered the bridge remnants in 2012 and launched research that led to confirmation as a Trail of Tears site, was a consultant on the survey.

Historic Nashville has helped fund research, and Save the Cumberland has provided boat transportation.

Findings from the recent survey will be made part of the Library of Congress records in Washington, D.C., on early American bridge building. Plans are to make photos available to Metro Archives as well, said Pat Cummins of the Native History Association.

Bridge remains are state right of way and were used for years as a homeless camp until overgrown vegetation was cleaned up and a fence put up in early 2014 after confirmation as a Trail of Tears site.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has entered into an agreement with the National Park Service to work on planning, interpretation and management of the ruins, TDOT spokeswoman Heather Jensen said

Reach Andy Humbles at 615-726-5939 and on Twitter @AndyHumbles.