Vandals defaced the oldest bridge in SC — it took days and a delicate process to clean
Someone painted a neon checkerboard on a bridge in upstate South Carolina.
But it wasn’t just any bridge.
Poinsett Bridge, built in 1820, is thought to be the oldest in the state — and maybe even the Southeast, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Greenville County Rec.
Its weathered stones were spray painted by vandals on Nov. 22 and 23, SCDNR said in a Facebook post Tuesday.
“UNBELIEVABLE!” the agency wrote. “Brian Long, Heritage Trust cultural preserve manager, and Abel Tobias, cultural preserve technician, spent the better part of two days removing the graffiti from Poinsett Bridge.”
Law enforcement with the SCDNR is investigating. A malicious damage report was also filed, prompting the involvement of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, WYFF 4 reported.
SCDNR told Fox Carolina that extra officers are patrolling the area and security cameras have been installed as a result.
Long and Tobias spent the better part of 10 hours on Monday cleaning the fragile bridge, according to the Greenville News. They expected to stay just as long Tuesday.
John Nolan of Greenville History Tours told WSPA it’s a delicate process.
The stones in Poinsett Bridge are all hand cut and arranged to “hold each other up” without cement, he said, according to the media outlet.
Long and Tobias relied on a brush truck from the Glassy Mountain Fire Department during Monday’s cleanup, the Greenville News reported.
Its water pressure was reportedly “more easily adjusted.”
“Too high, and their pressure washer could crumble the aging mortar that holds the bridge together and erode the stones; too low, and it wouldn’t be enough to clean off the coat staining the wall,” according to the newspaper.
They were able to use a series of pumps and tubes on their own power washer on Tuesday to finish the job, the Greenville News reported.
Long told the newspaper this is the worst act of vandalism he’s seen at Poinsett bridge.
“Usually it’s just some names or a little design, something on the front,” he said, according to the Greenville News. “I’ve never had it like this. I’ve never dealt with anything like this.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 11:25 AM.
