Bridge shut down for short period

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 16, 2004

Traffic on the Ironton-Russell bridge was closed for approximately one-half hour Thursday after local authorities detected an unknown floating object floating downstream in the Ohio River.

Ironton Police Chief Bill Garland said he received a call just after 2 p.m. from Russell, Ky., Police that an object was floating down river and appeared that it might strike a bridge piling. Since no one knew what is was, the bridge was closed for safety reasons.

"We really don't know what it was and no one seems to know where it came from," Garland said. "Looking at it through binoculars, I didn't see any markings on it. But it did have what looked like cornstalks or weeds on top of it. It looked like it might be a duck blind."

The roughly 10-by-10 object appeared to be blue-green or gray in color. It did strike a piling but did not do any damage.