Middle Bridge over the Antietam

I am lost. jess said it was middle bridge and somehow there is a discussion about it not being the Burnside bridge. Where is mistake? It looks like it is middle bridge as title of thread says.

Hi Pat,

Let me explain all, when l uploaded the picture for the thread l uploaded the wrong picture and the members who
posted let me know it was the Middle Bridge and not Burnside's Bridge as the thread title stated. So l got the title
changed to the Middle Bridge over the Antietam and changed the bio so all would be correct. All the posts by the
members came obviously before l changed everything. lt was my mistake and thankfully the members put me on
the right track, in a nutshell it was my screw up but all is fixed. l hope this clears this up for you and thanks for
the post, it is most appreciated?

Take care.................................Jess :biggrin::thumbsup:.
 
Often mistaken in photos as the Burnside bridge, even in official Maryland travel info brochures and websites.



JN08AntietamLwrBridgePD.jpg
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On post #30 the first photo is the Burnside bridge and the second is the extinct middle bridge. The last is Janet Leigh and a duck
 
Washington County MD had them built in the early 1800s. Stone was usually quarried onsite. CSA army used the quarry pits at Burnside bridge as rifle pits. Burnside built in 1836. Earliest in county built about 20 years earlier.
 
What's really neat is that the Antietam Creek is wonderfully floatable. You can put in to the left of the old Middle Bridge and float under the Burnside Bridge, over Snavely Ford and all the way down to the Potomac (without Confederate soldiers picking you off now - during the battle they were almost all the way down the creek).

In the spring and into midsummer, as you float under Burnside Bridge, the chimney swifts who build their mud nests under the arches will park themselves at the entrances to the nests and look down on you. That's if you're lucky. If you're not lucky, they'll do something else down on you.

If there's a volunteer on duty, you can even get a quick overview of the fight for the Burnside Bridge as you float by. Just get THAT from any other battlefield!
 
I don't see any chimney swifts in that pic, but I guess they got spooked by the fighting going on. In that respect only, it would be a good time to float downstream! :D
 
antbr.jpg

Here is more to the right of that picture, shows the other side of the road and peoples gardens. You can see the large barn in the background.
antbr.jpg
antietam bridge.jpg
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antietam bridge.jpg


Here is a lil farther back and right of same bridge.
antietam bridge.jpg
 
jess, it is the twin to the Burnside Bridge....no problemo. Two things to note are that there is no steep hill on the side where Burnside's men had to cross--and not really anything on the other, either....two factors that made crossing difficult (so put it mildly). We have a number of pics posted around here of the Burnside Bridge in modern times, and you can see the terrain differs pretty substantially.
The Eastern bank of the creek dominated the western bank completely as far as elevation and thus undefenseable
 
It is nice to see followup to this thread. I just wonder what happened to the original poster of this thread. He always posted and then just went away. I know several asked about him but we never heard any more.

It is always a wonder to me when people just no longer post. You wonder if something has happened to them. I know we have lost some people who have passed away or because of other obligations, they no longer can post. But it is always nice to know. I guess as some of us feel, we kind of a family and you wonder what happens to people. Just me rambling on and on.
 
It is the middle bridge, which as has been stated, long gone. The first time I saw this image in a book about Antietam, I was also confused. Then I went there and saw for myself what it looks like in this day and age. The only things left are the barn and house in the background. Alot of things can be confusing even when it's in your own back yard.
 
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