Own Your Own Bridge

If you have some extra money lying around, a large piece of property or warehouse, and a passion for historic preservation, then you can invest that money in a bridge. 

Yes, a bridge. An old one.

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is now marketing bridges that have been or are eligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places to entities—public or private—that want to own these engineering marvels. 

Bridges are placed on offer for many reasons, the most common of which is because they've "reached the end of service life for current or future traffic needs," as explained by Public Information Officer Anastaia Semien in an email. Once moved, they are prohibited from being used for vehicle traffic, though they are sometimes refitted for pedestrian or bicycle traffic.

Whatever its new use, the purpose of the program is to "maintain the historic integrity of the bridge, rather than scrapping it. An agreement is entered into with the entity that spells out the obligations of the parties," said Semien. In other words, there must be a plan for keeping the bridge intact and some place to put it.

Available bridges are announced on DOTD's website, and parties that have expressed interest are also notified. They are marketed for a set amount of time and priced at their salvage value; but if there are no takers, to the scrap heap they go.

So far, the program has found new homes for the Bayou Teche Bridge at Oaklawn on LA 323 in St. Mary Parish, the Bayou Beouf Bridge located along LA 1177 on the Rapides and Avoyelles parish line, and the Bayou Lafourche Cutoff Bridge on LA 847 in Caldwell Parish.

The full list of eligible bridges, which were inventoried in a report completed in 2015, can be found at wwwapps.dotd.la.gov/administration/public_info/projects/home.aspx?key=48.

Current bridges on offer can be found at wwwsp.dotd.la.gov/Inside_LaDOTD/Divisions/Engineering/Historic_Bridge_Marketing/Pages/default.aspx.