How 3 Kingsport bridges helped end WWII

Its chemical name is cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine. Its official name is "Research Department Explosive" code-named RDX, the end product nicknamed Composition B. Its purpose was to help America and the Allies gain an advantage during World War II. And it did. In his book "The Secret History of RDX," author and retired East Tennessee State University history professor Dr. Colin Baxter quoted the general production superintendent at the Holston Ordnance Works as saying "the introduction of the RDX super-explosive was the key factor in the Allies' success in anti-submarine warfare during World War II." RDX was produced in Kingsport. And three relatively unknown steel truss bridges in Kingsport helped transport it. "Those bridges were built in a matter of weeks because they had to be," remembered former Eastman employee and Kingsport Mayor Hunter Wright, who was eventually transferred to the later named Holston Army Ammunition Plant. "The fate of the entire world was at stake." "To me, the bridges were just as important as the explosive cargo carried over them," said Baxter. He wrote of thousands of workers converging on Kingsport, helping move continuous shipments of the super-secret explosive over three steel truss bridges that originally had no connections to Kingsport. During the war, Germany's U-boats were wreaking havoc on Allies across the Atlantic. "The dynamite being dropped on the U-boats only dented the heavy metal," Baxter said. Secretly, a more powerful explosive called RDX was being developed in England, Canada and the United States that would blow holes in the U-boats and sink them quickly. "The explosive was so sensitive that you couldn't handle it," Baxter said. "It was extremely susceptible to shock." Scientists at the Tennessee Eastman Company (then a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak) had perfected a system to mass-produce the RDX explosive for the war effort. Its huge plant in Kingsport was selected by the government for that purpose. For security reasons, the location at the Eastman plant along Wilcox Drive was designated "Area A" where the raw chemicals to make the explosive were produced and refined. Those chemicals would then be shipped to "Area B" (the Holston Ordnance Works) four miles away where the raw materials were converted into the explosive RDX. Area B was located on the sprawling, nearly 7,000-acre Rotherwood farm between Cloud's Bend and Solitude Bend in the Holston River, south of the mansion. At Area B, the RDX was mixed with TNT and a small amount of beeswax to become Composition B and be safely shipped to war zones around the world. The only way to ship quickly between the two sensitive areas was by railroad. The fast-paced construction of the Interplant Railroad track was done by so-called "gandy dancers," railroad section crews known for their synchronized cadences while laying track. Meanwhile, planning was already underway for three railroad bridges between Area A and Area B over the Holston River west of downtown Kingsport. "Steel was at a premium for the war effort," Baxter said. "Instead of building new bridges, Eastman's works manager Herbert Stone began looking for abandoned bridges to salvage." He found two rusting, deserted 50-year-old Warren pin-connected steel truss bridges over the James River at Lynchburg, Virginia. Stone contracted with the Bethlehem Steel Company to quickly disassemble the nine spans of the Orange Bridge and its sluice bridge, transport their steel beams to Kingsport, and reassemble them over the Holston River. Turns out, many Lynchburg folks had no idea what happened to their beloved Orange Bridge built in 1861. "Personally, I thought it had been scrapped and salvaged for the World War II effort," said Bob Leslie, the national representative for the Blue Ridge Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. Bethlehem crews worked day and night moving and reinstalling the spans. As the Warren trusses were being taken down, their reassembly at Kingsport was going on simultaneously. The South Fork Holston Bridge was put together as three spans, the longest at 183 feet. The second span was 163 feet, and the third span came in at 150 feet. The fourth and fifth spans were reassembled over the Holston River sluice, one span 148 feet long, the second one 146 feet. The Rotherwood-Ridgefields bridge at the foot of Bays Mountain was the longest crossing, all four remaining spans measuring between 142 and 161 feet long. A total of 31,000 rivets were carved out and replaced at reassembly. In less than three months after the spans were relocated, all three bridges were in operation. Baxter wrote that during its RDX operation, 120 carloads of chemicals made the five-mile journey between "Area A" and "Area B" daily (Area B is now the Holston Army Ammunition Plant). By 1945, tons of RDX Comp B explosive had been produced and transported. Now 82 years after the bridges were relocated, and exactly 80 years after the end of World War II, the three bridges responsible for helping to transport a necessary explosive in the war effort are still spanning three branches of the Holston River in Kingsport. "1943 and 1944 were definitely Kingsport's greatest years," said Wright. "The community turned out to be a major supplier to the war effort, and we could not have done without those three bridges." Baxter took that further. "There is no doubt in my mind that along with thousands of soldiers, tanks, planes, guns and many lives, those three bridges were sent on a secret mission from Virginia to Kingsport to help the war effort. And the explosive they carried helped pave the way for the atomic bomb that ultimately ended the war."