New Bridge across Lost River 

Earthen causeway removed.

Many people living in the Cacapon River watershed are probably unaware that, until very recently, an earthen causeway spanned the Lost River near McCauley.  With flow restricted through two relatively small culverts, the causeway would wash out during every high water event - sending large amounts of stone and smaller sediment washing downstream again and again.  

This causeway was "necessary" because a small private bridge, of questionable structural integrity, was the only other way to get into Baughman Settlement and money never seemed to be available for the State to build a new bridge.  The old bridge way mostly locked and opened only during high water events that made the causeway unsafe (or gone).  The construction of Corridor H broke loose some funding and a new bridge was built and commissioned in October 2002.

Building the new bridge allowed the earthen causeway to be permanently removed in late October 2002.  Some before and after pictures follow.  It should be interesting to watch the Lost River decide where its channel "should" be over the next couple of years.  Regardless of where the river ends up, the Lost, Cacapon, Potomac and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay will be spared a significant -- and continuously renewed -- source of sediment.