The workers I referred to in yesterday’s post are currently re-painting the WW11 Bailey bridge (that was saved in 2008) at Pont Farcy in Normandy.

This historic bridge, was once part of the Mulberry harbour at Arromanches, helping the allies land military material safely in Normandy following D-Day in 1944.

Later it was moved inland and for many years crossed the river Vire between Pont Farcy and Fourneaux, replacing a bridge that was destroyed during the war.

Perhaps not realising it’s significance, the local authorities decided to replace it with a modern bridge in June 2008 and by luck, historian and local resident, Christopher Long saw it had been dumped on the side of the river.

The photo above (from Christopher’s website) shows the bridge as it was before 2008. It still had wooden planks as a road and was a little bumpy to drive or cycle over. It’s a shame it had to be replaced but I suppose the up-keep was too costly and specialised for the people in charge of roads.

Saving our History

Christopher saved it from being sold as scrap and began the long campaign to get it moved and re-built as a monument and in 2009 it opened to the public. Christopher’s account of the history and then saving of this bridge is on his website so I’m not going to go into more detail. I’m just reporting on the amazing restoration job that my husband, Robert Adams and Christopher Long have been doing for the last couple of weeks.

First of all the wooden planks were removed (and taken to a farm for safe keeping). The supports for the road (planks) were put to one side for re-painting and the main structure was sandblasted back to raw steel for priming and re-painting. It’s a mammoth job.

Luckily the bridge’s new location at Pont Farcy has been made into a lovely picnic area on the banks of the Vire so a few of ‘Les Amis du Pont Bailey‘ came to admire the hard work and celebrate with food, wine and cake.

Work on spray painting the top coat continues today on the hottest day of the year so far.

More cake may be needed 🙂