My husband and I recently went with a tour group to the Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri. One of our favorite stops was at the Swinging Bridges of Brumley. In that area, the 400 foot Auglaize Bridge, which spans the Grand Glaize Creek, and the 100 foot Mill Creek Bridge, which spans Mill Creek, are only 1,000 feet apart by roadway. Our tour guide told us about the background of the bridges. They were built in 1931 by Joseph A. Dice, the legendary swinging bridge builder of Warsaw, Missouri, and his small crew. Dice was a self-taught engineer who didn’t finish fourth grade and never used blueprints to build his 31 suspension bridges.

Cars can drive across the bridges, and we saw a few do that while we were there. We walked across, and that was a bit scary because some of the boards were far apart, creating gaping holes.

I found a cool You Tube video that will let you experience what it’s like to drive across the bridges. http://youtu.be/hYxn9n7qStg

If you look closely at this photo, you’ll see someone standing underneath the bridge. I didn’t notice the person until I got home and uploaded the photos onto my computer.