The Taleyfak Spanish Bridge is photographed yesterday during a groundbreaking ceremony for the historic bridge's restoration project in Agat. / Ed Crisostomo/Pacific Daily News/ercrisostomo@guam |
A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday for a restoration project that hopes to save the Taleyfak Bridge, a relic of Guam's Spanish era that sits in peril on a roadside in Agat.
This stone bridge was built about 200 years ago, but the river that flows beneath it has grown in the last two centuries, and now the waters below threaten to wash away a piece of history.
"Nature does what nature does. It's beating up on the island every other week," Mike Makio said at the ceremony. "But I think we have to be vigilant and realize that this is a symbol for a lot of people. And the way that we treat this bridge, that we respect this bridge ... will speak to how we as a community took care of our heritage."
Makio is the chairman of both the Guam Preservation Trust Board and the Guam Historic Preservation Review Board. Both groups have had a hand in planning this nine-month, $873,000 federally funded project, which was awarded to Rex International Inc.
The project will build a bypass culvert that will divert about one-third of the water away from the bridge, reducing stress on the structure, according to the Department Public Works. The project shouldn't impact traffic in the area.
Public Works Director Joanne Brown said she still remembers visiting the bridge on a field trip when she was a child. And as she drives through Agat today, she always looks to the bridge, she said, making sure a little piece of history still survives.
"We are connecting our past and preserving our past. It's not every day that the DPW or Federal Highway gets to work on this type of project ... to protect our history. It's hard to believe that ... -- a few hundred years ago -- this was a mode of transportation."
The project also will build a parking area so tour buses can stop near the bridge.
Last September the Pacific Daily News wrote a story about the endangered bridge, which Agat residents said was both a heritage site and a liability. Because the bridge couldn't handle the increased flow of water, it sometimes caused flooding in the village, PDN files state. Garbage that was dumped in the river sometimes gathered around the bridge, making flooding even worse, PDN files state.
Source: http://www.guampdn.com/article/20120329/NEWS01/203290305/-1/NLETTER01/Restoration-starts-on-historic-Agat-bridge?source=nletter-news
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