Springfield Daily Citizen
Springfield, MO News
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After Ozark’s historic Green Bridge was closed in January 2024, Christian County began a project to preserve the structure and replace it. A new vehicle bridge opened Dec. 17, allowing cars to drive across Greenbridge Road and pass over the Finley River once again.
“It’s kind of a big deal,” Eastern Christian County Commissioner Bradley Jackson said at a Nov. 13 meeting. “I mean, this has been a two-year-long process, and I’m confident everybody’s ready to come across the bridge.”
There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. on Dec. 22 for the new $3.3 million overpass, with parking available at Riverside Park and shuttle pickups at 9:25 and 9:40 a.m.
Meanwhile, the 113-year-old Green Bridge is now laying deconstructed at the county government plaza development off Highway 14. The structure will be re-erected and showcased near an outdoor amphitheater on the site, integrating into a walking trail.
Highway administrator Miranda Beadles said she expects the old bridge to open for foot traffic in late spring 2026.
Federal funding enabled county to save historic bridge
Beadles stated that the Green Bridge was not eligible for the National Historic Register. The State Historic Preservation Office did not require the county to preserve the bridge. However, American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding covered the cost of the new overpass.
“Being able to take that off our local books allowed us to save the (Green Bridge),” Beadles said.
Before the bridge was closed in 2024, the Missouri Department of Transportation placed the lowest possible weight restriction on it. Disassembling the old bridge required about a week of work.
During the deconstruction, Beadles said the county was pleased not to discover severe disintegration of the steel bolts and fixtures holding the Green Bridge together. The county aims to preserve as much of the original, weathered steel as possible.
Emery Sapp & Sons, which completed the new overpass, plans to partner with the county to restore and re-erect the Green Bridge. Beadles estimates this project will cost around $300,000.
“We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback (for) saving the bridge,” she said.
Green Bridge has over a century of history
The Green Bridge was built in 1912. In a 2024 report to the county, Great River Engineering stated that the bridge “was recommended as not eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) during the Historic Bridge Inventory described as a typical example with poor physical integrity due to the replacement of the substructure and the approach spans.”
The engineer described the bridge’s seven-panel truss as 120 feet in length. The truss was created by Canton Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio, a major early 20th century bridge-building firm that was later incorporated into the American Bridge Company.
In a 2024 Facebook post, Christian County historian Wayne Glenn reported that the namesakes of the bridge were Calvin Coffey Green and his wife, Nancy Caroline Farthing (although the bridge’s name was probably unofficial). They married in North Carolina in 1872 and later moved to the Ozarks, developing a farm on the Finley River.
“The No. 1 legacy (of the bridge) was a connection allowing people to (travel) from one part of the county to another part,” Glenn told the Daily Citizen.
Green Bridge connected Ozark to Linden. Glenn explained that there would not have been much commercial traffic on it. “Even when it was built, there was not a lot of business east of it,” he said. “Farmers might have used it some, to transport grains.”
However, the bridge’s original weight limit may not have been high enough to transport steam-powered farm equipment. The people who farmed the land around the Green Bridge might have taken their tractors through water to cross the creek, Glenn said.
Zoe McIntyre was born and raised in the Springfield area. She covers Springfield’s surrounding communities, like Nixa, Ozark and Republic. While a student at Evangel University, she enjoyed working on staff at the school’s radio station and newspaper, where she served as editor in chief for one year. When she isn’t persuading her friends to read more news, she enjoys cooking and thrifting. More by Zoe McIntyre
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