Broad River Highway Bridge, State Route 72, spanning Broad River, Carlton, Madison County, GA

Significance: The Broad River Highway Bridge is an open spandrel concrete arch bridge built in 1935. The bridge is composed of three open spandrel concrete arches measuring 151' each and two other spans. The total length of the bridge is 554' and the width is 27'. The site of the present S.R. 72 bridge has long served as a river crossing between Madison and Elbert counties. It was the location of or quite near the location of Martin's Ferry as early as 1871, and that of Deadwylen's Ferry as early as 1884. The bridge is significant in that it is representative of the open spandrel concrete arch bridge. The bridge is on of ten open spandrel concrete arch bridges identified on the Georgia Historic Bridge Inventory and the only one recorded in Madison County. There is also one recorded open spandrel concrete bridge in Elbert County.
Survey number: HAER GA-47
Building/structure dates: 1935 Initial Construction