The Historic Shober Bridge ~ Salisbury, North Carolina: The Historic Shober Bridge ~ Salisbury, North Carolina

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The Historic Shober Bridge ~ Salisbury, North Carolina

The historic Shober Bridge in Salisbury North Carolina, also known as the Ellis Street Bridge, predates the Civil War and is a local landmark in the Ellis Street Graded School District. The Shober Bridge is best known as the bridge across which General George Stoneman led his Union troops to occupy Salisbury in 1865.

The Shober Bridge is fairly unique in structure. A "humpback" or "camel-back" bridge, the 100-foot-long, single-span structure is four feet higher at its center than it is at either end, giving it a rounded or 'humpback' appearance. The Shober Bridge's earliest history is long buried or forgotten, however bridges of this style were built in the 1820's and were often covered. The Shober Bridge has no evidence of ever having been a covered bridge. The Shober Bridge is one of the few overpasses over the railway system in Salisbury. It is situated in the heart of one of Salisbury's 10 National Historic Districts, the Ellis Street Graded School District, where it is cited as a contributing structure on the National Registry of Historic Places.

Shober Bridge is constructed of large round wooden posts and a plank deck in three sections. There are two angled approaches and a flat span across the tracks. The bridge is constructed with wooden girders that rest atop the trestles from the two approaches and I-beams support the flat span. The supports for the trestles and the abutments are concrete. The sidewalks have wooden railings on both sides,facilitating pedestrian traffic over the railroad tracks and through the neighborhood. Based on construction and materials, the current Shober Bridge configuration appears to date from the 1932 - 1944 period. (United States Department of the Interior, National Parks Service, National Register of Historic Places, Ellis Street Graded School Historic District, Rowan County, North Carolina)

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Excerpts from the Salisbury Post - January 1878 & February 1878

Shober, Francis Edwin (1831 - 1896)

Francis Edwin Shober (1831 - 1896) of Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina, was born in Salem (now Winston-Salem) North Carolina in 1831. Francis E. Shober attended the common schools and the Moravian School, Bethlehem PA. He was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1851, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1853. Shober commenced practice in Salisbury NC in 1854. He was a member of the North Carolina state lhouse of commons in 1862 and 1864, served in the State senate in 1865. Shober was elected the U. S. Representative from North Carolina 6th District from 1869 - 1873, Forty-first and Forty-second congresses. and was the delegate to the State Constitutional Convention in 1875. Francis Shober served as Rowan County judge in 1877 and 1878, was appointed to Chief Clerk of the United States Senate in the Forty-fifth congress, and upon the death of Secretary John Burch was appointed Acting Secretary of the Senate serving from October 1881 to March 1883. Francis E. Shober was the delegate to the Democratic National Conventions in 1880 and 1884. He was again a member of the State senate in 1887. He would later resume the practice of his profession in Salisbury, NC where he died May 29th, 1896. Francis Edwin Shober is father to Francis Emanuel Shober (1860 - 1919). Francis E. Shober is interred at Oakdale Cemetery, Salisbury NC.

(The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, http://bioguide.congress.gov)
(The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/shober-shorett.html)

The Ellis Street / Shober Humpback Bridge ~ Description

The Ellis Street / Shober Humpback Bridge crossed the two tracks of the Norfolk Southern Railroad in the north-south direction.

The Ellis Street / Shober Humpback Bridge consists of five spans which rest on four bents and two abutments. The total length of the three spans between the north and south abutments is approximately 99 feet. The superstructure consists of a bituminous concrete wearing surface on a nailed laminated timber deck supported by steel and timber stringers. The main span is level with a built in crown. The grades of the approach spans are more than 7%. The substructure consists of one reinforced concrete abutment and four timber bents supported by concrete pedestals. The southe abutment consists of pedestals with timber lagging, forming a low abutment wall.

The Shober Bridge superstructure, according the 1926 plans, consists of an asphalt wearing surface on a 3"x4" nailed laminated deck supported by timber and steel stringers. Reinforcing in the north abutment, according to the plans, consists of #5 vertical reinforcing bard spaced 10-inches on center on the back face of a 12-inch thick concrete wall and #5 horizontal temperature bars on the front face.

One of the drawings referenced indicates that the steel beams are 15-inch deep by 42.9 plf I-beams at approximately 2'-3" on center. The 1926 plans indicate that 4" x 14" timber stringers and the steel beams plus new pedestals and the north abutment were an extension to the original bridge which was built before 1926. The plans state "Built in accordance with the Southern Railway Standard for Overhead Highway Bridges dated August 23, 1913."

The Ellis Street / Shober Humpback Bridge can provide continued service for a long time, if it is properly maintained on a periodic basis. The primary work items will be structural steel, timber, and reinforced concrete.

(Fischetti, 2006)

Stoneman's Raid into Salisbury ~ April 12th, 1856

"The people of Salisbury awoke at first light on April 12, 1865. The distant sounds of exploding artillery shells announced that Stoneman's dreaded Raiders had, at last, reached their doorstep. For months, Salisbury had braced for the invasion of Union troops. From the beginning, Stoneman had Salisbury, the fifth largest city in North Carolina, in his sights.

By first light (5:30am), Stoneman, ...[was] opposed by a rag-tag assemblage of Confederates at Grant's Creek, about 2 and 1/2 miles north of Salisbury. The Blue and Gray faced each other at the old (Old Mocksville Road) and new (West Innes Street) Mocksville road crossings of Grant's Creek. Outflanked on both sides, two hours after the first shots at Grant's Creek were fired, the Confederates were routed, and a running battle moved toward and into the streets of Salisbury. Given their positions at the creek...Stoneman's Raiders, four deep, entered down three roads: the Old Mocksville Road and Shober's Bridge on Henderson (North Ellis) Street, West Innes Street, and the Old Plank Road. It must have seemed to the residents of Salisbury that the Yanks were coming from all directions!

Before they would leave, the Raiders would burn the prison, barracks, hospitals and surrounding buildings used by the Confederate government; the arsenal, steam distillery, and buildings used by the Central and Western Railroads. ... A fire was put out before it destroyed the Rowan County courthouse and all its records. When Stoneman left, Salisburians considered themselves fortunate, in comparison to Columbia and Fayetteville, that the town had not been completely destroyed."

(Brownlee, A., 2003. Stoneman's Raid: Salisbury and the Yadkin River Bridge. Retrieved from www.trading-ford.org/stoneman.html)

The Historic Shober Bridge ~ Salisbury, North Carolina

Tuesday, February 2, 2010