Location Information
(for the Byram Swinging Bridge suspension bridge)
Name:Byram Swinging Bridge (suspension bridge)
Address:at Byram
over Pearl River
City/County:Byram, Hinds County
Architectural Information
Construction Date:c.1905
Registration Information
NR Listing Date:23 May 1979
    MPS:Swinging Suspension Bridges of Mississippi
View National Register Nomination Form
Mississippi Landmark Information
Designated:06-20-1985
Recorded:09-19-1985
Context/Comments
This suspension bridge over the Pearl River was built about 1905 as a vehicular bridge. It has been bypassed by a newer vehicular bridge and has been preserved as a pedestrian bridge. It was listed on the National Register on 23 May 1979 and it was designated a Mississippi Landmark on 20 June 1985.
Historic Information
Meeting the transportation needs of farmers and occasional travelers in rural areas of southwestern Mississippi in the first two decades of the twentieth century, swinging suspension bridges were well suited for construction across the ravines and deep creek beds that separated rural settlement areas. Known locally as "swinging bridges" because of the tensile quality of the arched decks, the structures proved to be a remarkable vernacular adaptation of their larger predecessors, the Wheeling and Brooklyn bridges.