On an episode of the TV game show Jeopardy aired last Thursday, Dec. 21, one of the clues was, “West Virginia has a statue of this half-human half-insect creature supposedly first sighted in Point Pleasant in the mid-1960s.”

“What is The Mothman?” correctly asked one of the contestants.

Residents of the East Liverpool, Ohio, and Chester, W.Va., area who saw that Jeopardy episode may have wondered, as I did, whether that question was inspired by the sudden closure on Dec. 11 of the Jennings Randolph Bridge on the Ohio River here.

Mothman. Silver Bridge. Chester Bridge. Newell Bridge. That was my instant train of thought.

Before we go any further into this topic, I am not drawing any parallels between either of our two bridges and the Silver Bridge. I am and have always been a great fan of the Newell Bridge. It has come to the rescue twice now, though we hope this second episode will be much shorter than the first.

When I heard that the Jennings Randolph had been unexpectedly closed for repairs, and that traffic was backed up for hours through Chester and the other approaches to get across the Newell Bridge, I recalled the public distress caused when the old Chester Bridge was closed on May 14, 1969. It would be eight long years before the modern four-lane Jennings Randolph Bridge was opened and the bottleneck in U.S. Route 30 relieved. In the meantime, the Newell Toll Bridge was the lifeline between the two cities.

The Silver Bridge, named for its bright aluminum paint job, was a suspension bridge connecting Gallipolis, Ohio, with Point Pleasant, W.Va. It collapsed on Dec. 15, 1967, during rush-hour traffic. Forty-six people perished when a single steel eyebar connecting the deck to the suspension cables failed, causing a chain reaction failure which dropped dozens of vehicles into the cold Ohio River.

After the bridge fell, the idea took root that sightings of a creature later dubbed “The Mothman” might have been a warning from a supernatural or alien being. In the summer of 1966, two young couples at Point Pleasant reported a frightening encounter with a man-sized apparition with wings and glowing red eyes.

That was the inspiration for a 1975 book, “The Mothman Prophecies,” and a 2002 film starring Richard Gere and Debra Messing. With a cult following for the film and interest in paranormal events, The Mothman legend has grown over the years. The citizens of Point Pleasant embraced their hometown monster, creating a Mothman museum, an annual Mothman festival, and a roadside 12-foot metallic statue of the winged spectre.

The Mothman is pure bunkum, of course, but the Silver Bridge collapse and the panicked fallout from it were very real. Hurried inspections of suspension bridges everywhere led to several being closed. The Chester suspension bridge, which opened Dec. 31, 1896, was among them. Initially it remained open with height and weight restrictions. When it closed at 11 a.m. on May 14, 1969, that left the Newell Toll Bridge, one mile downriver, as the only crossing for many miles up or down the river.

The Newell Toll Bridge opened in 1905, built specifically to transport East Liverpool resident employees of the Homer Laughlin China Co. by interurban streetcar across the river to the company’s big new pottery in Newell. It was privately owned and operated by a subsidiary of Homer Laughlin until May 2022, when it was bought by Six Enterprises, the company which began maintaining it in 1967. This past July it was renamed the Wayne Six Toll Bridge in honor of the man who has been keeping it in repair since that time.

Frank Six, president of Six Enterprises, spelled by other Six family members and employees, has spent much of the last two weeks sitting in a pickup truck on the West Virginia end, controlling the traffic light to prevent too many cars from being backed up on the bridge – not because of safety, but to keep drivers from “flipping out,” as Frank says.

“So many people have anxiety,” he said. “Blowing horns and screaming if they get stopped on the bridge.” It is normal for suspension bridges to sway a little, which can be felt by occupants in a stopped car.

Cars coming from Ohio can be spaced by the traffic light, plus the natural process of stopping to pay the one-dollar toll. For vehicles coming from W.Va., workers in the toll booth have been waving them through, toll-free, if backups occur during heavy traffic periods. A few drivers now mistakenly believe the toll is only one-way.

“That bridge is strong,” Frank Six said. “Wayne told me that bridge was built to handle 100 tons,” which could happen when two 50-ton interurban streetcars crossed from opposite directions, Frank said.

So, my advice is to trust the Newell Bridge and the Six family, be thankful to the family-owned Homer Laughlin Co. for keeping it operating, and pay your dollar toll both ways with gratitude. Pray that the Jennings Randolph Bridge is fixed soon and we won’t have any sightings here of The Mothman.

(There is not room here to get into legendary oil and gas entrepreneur C.A. Smith, who gained controlling interest in the Chester Bridge after it went into receivership not long after opening. He later sold it to the state. He also owned the interurban streetcar line, Rock Springs Park and other local assets. For more history on the Chester and Newell bridges, visit eastliverpoolhistoricalsociety.org and laurelhollowpark.net)