FROM
THE BIRMINGHAM NEWS:
Marker
points out history of Ross Bridge and creek
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
LIZ
ELLABY
News staff writer
Before Daniel Corporation's unveiling of the 1,600-acre Ross Bridge
resort and residential community, few people knew about the
namesake creek or Confederate-era railroad bridge at the base of
Shades Mountain.
The
Hoover Historical Society installed a marker Feb. 13 at the site,
which is just off Ross Parkway, formerly Deer Valley
Parkway.
The
marker briefly notes that James Taylor Ross settled there in 1858
and provided land for a rail line that spanned the creek. Details
provided by a society-published history describe the bridge as a
survivor of a Union Army mission to destroy Southern munitions
supply lines - including mines, furnaces, factories and railroad
bridges - led by Gen. James H. Wilson in 1865. "Wilson's Raiders,"
as they were called, destroyed two Oxmoor Valley blast furnaces but
didn't disturb the unfinished railbed used to move wagonloads of
pig iron from the furnaces through Brock's Gap and eventually to
the Confederate Arsenal in Selma.
The
North & South Railroad line was completed after the war and
eventually sold to the L&N, according to "A History of Hoover,
Alabama and Its People," a 1991 local history by Marilyn Davis
Barefield. The culvert, built with slave labor and funded by the
Confederacy remains intact.
Barefield's book says the culvert is made of the same
locally-quarried sandstone used in the furnaces and in Birmingham's
first jail and courthouse. The blocks in the arch are held in place
with a keystone instead of mortar, perhaps explaining its
longevity.
The
Ross property was purchased in 1907 by the Tennessee Coal Corp.
(TCI, later U.S. Steel Corp.) whose real estate division is a
partner in the current Ross Bridge development with Daniel Corp.
and the Retirement Systems of Alabama.
Historical appeal:
Residential Sales Manager Dorothy Tayloe said the
little-known Confederate history adds appeal to the growing Ross
Bridge community.
"We
love to tell people there is a history to this place," she said.
"We point this out to lifelong residents of Shades Valley and
they're absolutely stunned. They didn't have any idea," she
said.
When
fully developed over the next decade, the residential community,
anchored by the luxury Marriott resort hotel and Robert Trent Jones
Trail golf course, will have 1,800 houses, Tayloe said. Currently,
118 houses are under construction in five neighborhoods, with 174
additional sites under contract. A sixth neighborhood with 200
sites will be ready to build in April, she said.
The
scarcely noticeable culvert is to the west of the parkway entering
the Ross Bridge development. Tayloe said the Civil War-era
structure was just one of name sources developers
considered.
