The Old White Bridge

By George Boyles

Three or four generations ago, White Bridge Road was called Whitworth's Lane, and simply identified
on most maps as just "County Road". The bridge was a narrow, dirty looking, sand colored crossover
just off Harding.

About 1912, or a little later, the county officials and railroad officers agreed that the rather dangerous wagon crossing should be replaced by a bridge, and the road be raised above the *swag.

After some months, it was finished and a white cement coating layered all over it to smooth it and prevent
weathering. It was white. Gleaming, shining, dazzling white. It was so white that coming up on it hurt your eyes. It could be seen from beyond Belle Meade Blvd. to the west, from the hill of St. Mary's Orphanage
eastward, and from Dutchman's Curve down the railroad. It was The White Bridge.

*swag, a depression in the earth

An excerpt from an oral history interview with Historian George Boyles, 1983

More interviews with Mr. Boyles are available at the Nashville Public Library