Notes from my Knapsack 10-20-22

Notes from my Knapsack 10-20-22
Jeff Gill

Water is both a path and a barrier
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Here I am thinking about county growth and development and watersheds, and right in mid-mulling we're hearing in the Granville area about bridges.

The big one across Rt. 16 just got renovated (essentially replaced in pieces), but you actually cross Raccoon Creek at the Cherry St. viaduct, the big curve from Rt. 16 up into the village, and on Main St. you cross it just after the fire station as you come into downtown.

You can go west and cross Raccoon Creek beyond where Raccoon Valley Road forks north, and take the parallel over towards Alexandria alongside Rt. 161 on Moots Run Rd.; it used to be Granville's third river crossing when you could shoot west and jump onto the highway before it got highwayified.

And then the fourth Granville crossing was actually just outside of even today's village limits, over where Arby's and Bob Evans and Speedway front on the highway east of the village, and Cherry Valley Hotel stands just beyond the border.

Beyond that, on past the new T-intersection for Thornwood Crossing, is/was the "Cherry Valley Bridge" as the ODOT signs now say, or historically the "Showman Arch Bridge." Our fourth river crossing, now closed to traffic, pushing drivers on east into Newark to make their way north over Raccoon creek at Church St. or as far as 21st St. let alone the official detour down W. Main in Newark to Rt. 79.

Why so far? Well, the T-intersection was never meant as more than a stop-gap. Plans have always been to build a Thornwood Connector from where River Road and Thornwood meet then swerve onto Reddington Rd., straightening it out to leap the creek and connect Thornwood Crossing to Thornwood Drive. We got the first part built, the interchange, and the rest is coming . . . just not soon enough, it appears!

The three arch stone bridge we took for granted for so long was built in 1832 to 1833, so almost 190 years of service: first as an aqueduct, then after the Granville Feeder was no longer in service for the Ohio & Erie Canal (pieces of which still loom over Raccoon Creek if you know where to look), it was filled in and became a bridge for carts and horses and wagons, and finally some 10,000 motor vehicles a day.

Why no other bridges to get from south of the creek in west Newark to the east side of Granville? Geography and geology. Park Trails sits atop a line of bluffs, sharp and steep, formerly known as Rattlesnake Heights, once dotted with Native American mounds. Opposite that obstacle, on the other side of the river just to the east, is Ashley Hill and what was once the famous Dugway, a cut bank and road around the base of the hill following the creek. Now the deep chasm of modern Rt. 16 slices right through the southern prominence, and most miss it. But for a long time, it was a major barrier to Newark-Granville traffic, unless you swung south onto the Old Columbus Road, today's W. Main and veering onto what's now Cherry Valley Road through Central City, and crossing at the Showman aqueduct bridge.

To replace it will take time, and the only time we have is ahead of us. So that's when it will be done, and we'll have to make the best of today while we have it.


Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he likes wading creeks and climbing hills to get to see this stuff to tell you about. Tell him anything but how much you wish they'd built the new bridge last year at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.