From the Darkroom: This bridge outside Kimberling City lies deep below the lake's surface

While the Kimberling City Bridge in Stone County is a landmark today, with locals often gauging how high Table Rock Lake water levels have reached in seasons of excessive flooding by watching how close the surface of the lake gets to the bridge’s driving surface, the bridge we use today is not the original.

Shown in this photograph on July 20, 1952 is the original Kimberling Bridge, which spanned the White River on Highway 13’s route prior to the construction of Table Rock Dam. This photograph, taken prior to the dam’s construction between 1954 and 1958, shows the bridge that engineers estimated the dam would place 60 feet below the surface. The lake’s average levels ended up reaching between 100 and 140 feet above the old bridge.

While engineers at the time anticipated the new bridge would be built at a narrower crossing with a completely rerouted highway, the new bridge was actually constructed directly next to the old bridge, which can still be seen in sonar imaging of the lake bed today. While the development of Table Rock Lake and Dam brought about many positive changes and a resource for electricity and flood management in the White River Valley, many such historic landmarks now lie deep beneath the surface of the lake.

This image is part of a much larger collection of historically rich photographs from the News-Leader’s photo archive. Each week, the Springfield-Greene County Library will tap into this vast collection and present an interesting image “from the darkroom" and share its history. This image is presented in partnership between the Springfield-Greene County Library District and the Springfield News-Leader. For more historical images of the Ozarks, visit: thelibrary.org/fromthedarkroom.