More low cost bridges and stepping stones
For those of you who aren't
following the cheap
creek-crossing options discussion, I thought I'd showcase some
of
the interesting ideas our readers have suggested to get us across the
creek. Mom posted a cool video of a road-sized drawbridge in
action, to which Roland responded with this image of a pedestrian-scale
drawbridge. Roland
commented to let us know that these are quite common in the Netherlands
--- who knew?!
This video of a really cheaply constructed rope swinging bridge also
tickled my fancy. Swinging bridges are quite common in our area,
which suggests they might be one of the best options. I'd thought
they were beyond our price-range, but they might be feasible using rope
and two by fours.
Roland,
again, peaked my curiosity with his note that the Incas have been
making grass rope bridges for centuries. Isn't the one shown here
awesome? (No, we won't be weaving straw ropes --- I just
think it's cool.)
Meanwhile, Dudley
suggested two quick and dirty (and cheap) options --- using a junked
flatbed tractor trailer, or using a ladder as the supports for wooden
planks. The former reminded me of the idea Mark had floated a
while ago about using the frame of a burned down mobile home.
Daddy and Erich
suggested using telephone poles as the supports for a footbridge ---
this may indeed be our cheapest and easiest option, if we found used
telephone poles and were able to haul them.
A
couple of you have suggested pontoon bridges, but these don't seem very
feasible for our creek --- the water goes up and down too fast, I
think, and floating trees would be a problem.
Daddy let me know that
my stepping stone option isn't nuts since he'd been to a park that used
three foot high piers as stepping stones along a trail.
Finally, two of you drew
up bridge plans for us! The drawing on the left is Titus's plan,
using the existing telephone poles on each side of the
creek as anchors. It depends on I-beams for support.
The drawing below is Roland's tensegrity bridge. (I'd never heard
of it either! Check out his
comment for more info.)
I don't think we're any
closer to making a design decision, but we sure have enjoyed seeing all
of these ideas. Keep them coming!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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That tensegrity bridge looks interesting...
On another note, I just found another 20 acres for sale in the area I've been looking. $800/acre. The creek bottom flash floods though... and the creek runs through the middle of the property. But, I've been told by the locals that everytime there is a flash flood, there is new quality rock to be collected for anyone who wants it. Also, since it has some bottomland it has potential garden areas. I haven't seen it yet, but can't wait to get up there and have a look. As far as I can tell, it is fully timbered.