CROSSING THAT BRIDGE

OLD APPLETON, Mo. -- A flood took out the Old Appleton Bridge in 1982, knocked it sideways and pulled it beneath the trout-colored water in minutes, and the Old Appleton Bridge Restoration Committee has been trying to put it back together ever since.

Hopefully, with a little help from the Army National Guard, the project is almost done.

All time expectations on how long it would take to replace the 121-year-old bridge have been exceeded, but time passes slowly in the north Cape Girardeau County town of Old Appleton.

"It's been almost 20 years since that sucker went out," said Art Dellamano, 76, secretary of the committee, standing on the earthen bank of Apple Creek. Delamano owns the section of the creek that the bridge will cross and the remains of McClane's Mill, where flour milling turbines were once powered by opening a sluice gate beside the bridge.

Last week, Dellamano's gaze shifted from the exposed stone foundation of the bridge's western approach to the 100-foot iron superstructure sitting in his yard. The lowest iron trusses of the superstructure are overgrown with grass.

Dellamano sighed. The last trick is going to be moving the bridge into place over the creek, he said.

Mark Birchler, the committee's engineer, said because the committee may not have enough money to pay a contractor to move the superstructure, he hopes the Army National Guard will do it. Sifting through bureaucracy to make this request officially has been the cause of the latest delay, he said.

"When you're working with the federal government, it's one delay after another. That's just the way it is," said Birchler. "But the colonels who have been working with us have said, 'We're going to get this done.'"

Birchler is an engineer with CDG Engineers of St. Louis.

He said he hopes to have guardsmen hoisting the iron superstructure into place over the water within a month.

The bridge links Perry County, to the west, and Cape Gir-ardeau County, to the east.

Dellamano said he hopes to have the bridge in place soon so committee member Rev. Walter Keisker, a 101-year-old Lutheran priest, can see it before dying.

"We're doing our best to get that damn thing up so he can see it," Dellamano said.

The Old Appleton bridge was originally built for $2,500 in 1879 by the H.W. Sebastian Company of St. Louis. Iron girders twisted in the 1982 flood made the return trip to St. Louis in the 1990s to be repaired at the LaSalle Iron Company. Still more of the beams will have to make the trip to St. Louis before the bridge can be completed, said Dellamano. Currently, these girders lie in a pile beside the western bridge approach.

The committee has spent about $20,000, Dellamano estimated, in the restoration effort that has been plagued with delays. These delays included another flood in 1986, which carried away McClane's Mill, built in 1824, and buried the nearby bridge repair materials in mud. Also, all the stone piers of the Perry and Cape approaches had to be raised three and a half feet to meet federal regulations.

The bridge is believed to be oldest iron bridge in Missouri still at its original location (give or take 40 feet).

Once completed, the bridge will be open for bicycles, horses and pedestrians, but not cars. The restoration committee hopes to have the bridge granted National Landmark status, and to make the surrounding area a park.

"All I can tell everybody involved is, 'Keep the faith.' We're very close," Birchler said.