The Gateway between Chimney Rock Village & Lake Lure is Growing More Beautiful by the Day
As you no doubt have noticed, things are a buzz of activity on
the Flowering Bridge. The area leading
onto the bridge from Lake Lure has been greatly enhanced with plantings, a dry
river bed, a split rail fence and the gently curving walkway incorporating the
Founders Circle. The bridge now sports a
number of planters filled with soil and new plantings.
Early on, the Flowering Bridge Board decided to self-contract the construction of the garden design, utilizing donated materials and volunteer labor. When professional help was needed, they have hired local craftsmen. Community volunteers are providing hundreds of hours of hard labor under the careful guidance of Project Superintendents Charlie Yelton and Chuck Watkins.
The Grand Opening is scheduled this fall.
The LLFB is a community-based organization coming together to design, create and maintain a flowering pedestrian bridge across the Rocky Broad River and the walkways at both ends of the bridge for the joy and benefit of all who come our way. The bridge, completed in 1925, served as a part of the US 64/US 74-A/NC 9 highway until 2011 when a new bridge was opened to traffic.
In 2011, the North Carolina Department of Transportation completed a new bridge a few yards upstream from the site of the old and thus closed the older bridge to traffic.
The old bridge is a three-arch span. Its original design included eight light posts topped by decorative lamps. Those were removed years ago, but an effort to locate and/or replicate them in the design of the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge is underway. From the bridge, the famous Chimney Rock, now part of Chimney Rock State Park, is visible upstream and Lake Lure itself is visible downstream where the Rocky Broad River flows into the lake.
The Historic Bridge was turned over to the Town of Lake Lure to allow for the creation of this unique community garden bridge, to be developed by local people to further enhance the natural beauty of the Hickory Nut Gorge for generations to come.
