Officials decide against relocating historic bridge

VICKSBURG — Officials in Vicksburg are scrapping plans to move a 143-year-old bridge from one part of town to another.

There had been talk of moving the Fairground Street Bridge to the site of the Lower Mississippi River Museum downtown.

A project manager, Michael Renacker, says several contractors each quoted at least $10 million to move the bridge a mile and a half.

The Vicksburg Post reports many engineers think the structure is too brittle to move.

The bridge is about 200 feet long and 15 feet wide. It was built in 1868 in Dubuque, Iowa, and was moved to Vicksburg in 1895.

The bridge gave horses and buggies a way to travel over railroad tracks to the Mississippi River. It has been closed to traffic for about 20 years.