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WATCH: Remaining spans of Jefferson Co. 'green bridge' demolished

The Hoskins-Jarnagin bridge, built in the 40's and most recently painted green, has now been replaced by a much wider bridge built right next door.

Most of the remaining pieces of a visible part of Jefferson County's past sank into the French Broad River Thursday morning as demolition crews blew up the spans that were left standing on the old Highway 92 bridge.

Crews finished the initial stages of demolition work on the Dandridge "Green" Bridge nearly a month after blowing up the center span in November. Now, only the lower supports of the bridge remain.

The Hoskins-Jarnagin bridge, built in the 1940s and more recently painted green, has now been replaced by a much wider bridge built right next door. Traffic was diverted onto the new bridge in October.

The Hoskins-Jarnagin bridge that crossed Hwy. 92 in Douglas Lake. 

The old bridge was just about 18 feet wide with no shoulders, while the new one is 52-feet wide with two 12-foot travel lanes, 10-foot shoulders and a sidewalk.

For many in the small town of less than 3,000, the bridge was far more than just a bridge.

"I'm kind of sad to see it go because it's part of my history and I consider it to be part of the city of Dandridge," said Bob Jarnagin, the historian for Jefferson County. "My grandfather's name is on the bridge. I've grown up with that bridge."

His grandfather, H.B. Jarnagin, was the mayor of Dandridge when the bridge was built. His picture now hangs in the town hall, the same building TVA used as its headquarters during the construction.

"All good things must come to an end I suppose," Jarnagin said. "It's like a part of my own personal history and a part of the history of Dandridge … it's an era bygone now."

Construction on the bridge started in 1942 as a way to connect land separated by the new lake created by the Douglas Dam.

Gone today is a relic of past ingenuity, replaced with new engineering.

City leaders approved the change back in 2014, and while many were sad to see the old bridge go, it just wasn't safe enough for that much traffic.

Part of the Hwy. 92 bridge in Jefferson Co. is demolished.

There were discussions about keeping the old bridge for a pedestrian traffic, but it wasn't cost efficient to keep it.

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