Winlock Celebrates Long-Awaited Fir Street Bridge Opening

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After four years without the bridge that eased traffic from downtown to Winlock Miller Elementary School, Winlock finally has its Fir Street Bridge back. 

The town celebrated on Friday morning by releasing its elementary school students for a few minutes to walk across the bridge and attempt to recreate a photo of the original bridge in 1960.

“The mayor contacted us a few weeks ago and said that somebody told him when they first opened the bridge in 1960, they did that,” said Winlock School District Superintendent Richard Serns. “We found an old picture of the kids walking across. Some of the folks that did still remembered it and thought it would be a good idea.”

When the original Fir Street Bridge opened in 1960, Winlock students walked from Arden Street toward downtown. The Winlock Historical Museum sought to recreate a photo from that day.

“We at the museum wanted to recreate the picture that they had from 1960 when the kids were crossing the bridge,” said Tommy Thompson, who is the president of Winlock Historical Museum.

Later that same day, the Winlock Improvement Network and the Winlock Historical Museum hosted an evening of free hot dogs, chips and drinks in the Winolequa Learning Academy parking lot at the corner of Fir and Arden Streets from 5-7 p.m.

Thompson, who was cooking hot dogs for the evening celebration, has lived in Winlock 55 years.



“We just thought that this would be a great way to get the community together, those who have been impacted and inconvenienced by (the bridge being closed),” he said. “... People couldn’t walk from here across (the bridge). They just blocked it off entirely. It looked intact, but the state declared it unsafe.”

Susan Griggs, who is part of the Winlock Improvement Network, also planned the free evening event. She said Winlock Improvement Network is working on multiple projects to help unify the community.

“Winlock Improvement Network is trying to see what we can do to improve the town of Winlock,” Griggs said. “I know that we are going to have a few new businesses come in, so we have offered services to help get their businesses painted. That’s one of the things we have done to help over the years, is to have an open house for the new businesses and then do other types of activities to try to bring the town together and strengthen the community.”

Various Winlock community members showed up for the free hot dogs and a little conversation. Lorene and Chuck Taylor, who have lived in Winlock about two years, attended the Friday-night celebration for the Fir Street Bridge as well.

“It’s nice to have it,” Lorene Taylor said. “It was kind of a necessary bridge to have. Now that it’s here, it’s nice to have it back.”

Murph Watson, who has lived in Winlock about 10 years, said he approved of the new bridge.

“That far side, the creek had cut deep into the bank,” Watson said. “So it was pretty easy to get folks to focus on the problem and start working on a solution. I don’t think in the beginning anybody knew it would be closed this long, but they built a really, really great bridge. … I want to thank everybody that made robust response to the safety aspects and did such a fine job of engineering this new bridge.”