POMEROY, Ohio — The last visible piece of the old Pomeroy Mason Bridge, the West Virginia pier, will be imploded at 1 p.m. today, weather permitting.

At 2 p.m. yesterday, workers with Duane Houkom Inc. out of Texas imploded the top, visible portion of the Ohio pier with 500 pounds of a C4 mixture. The remainder of the pier, which sits underwater, will be imploded in a similar fashion, according to Cary Betzing, project engineer with the Ohio Department of Transportation. Betzing said workers could not drill all the way down the pier all at once because of tapers in the pier which wouldn’t allow workers to get close enough to the outside edges since the drill used is vertical.

Traffic was stopped along the Ohio River, on West Main Street in Pomeroy, Ohio and on the Bridge of Honor for a brief period of time yesterday but resumed shortly after. Traffic on the new bridge will be halted again today during the implosion. As for yesterday’s demolition, Betzing said it went “as planned.” As for what remains of the piers which sit underwater, they will be drilled, filled with explosives and “shot” two feet below the river bottom.

The Pomeroy Mason Bridge traces its roots back to 1914 when W.A. Compton and W.F. Reed, Pomeroy businessmen, took the leadership in promoting the project. The bridge was dedicated on Nov. 12, 1928 and closed to traffic on Dec. 30, 2008. It had a cantilever span of 1,185 feet, a channel span of 665 feet and an over-all length of 2,000 feet which was nearly a half mile. Four concrete piers, with two anchor spans between the shoreward piers supported 1,847.75 feet of “steel superstructure” according to a 1946 newspaper article. The larger piers extend 50 to 60 feet underground below the river bed and six feet into solid rock foundations.

Two months from the date the first steel was laid, the main span was connected on Aug. 22, 1928. The masonry and concrete work were completed in eight months with the painting and general conditioning after the steel work was finished requiring two months. The span was finished in one year. The old bridge cost $1 million to construct, the same amount it is costing to demolish the bridge from pier to pier. In comparison, its replacement, the Bridge of Honor, cost $65 million and took over five years to complete. The Pomeroy-Mason Bridge operated as a toll bridge until 1946 when it was “freed” during a ceremony said to have been attended by 6,000 spectators.

The bridge’s center span was brought down with explosives on April 21 followed by the West Virginia span on May 14 and the Ohio span on May 28.