Siloam, North Carolina

Siloam is an unincorporated community located in southeastern Surry County, North Carolina, United States. The Yadkin River makes up the community's southern border, and the Ararat River flows between it and the community of Shoals to the east.

As of the United States 2000 Census, the CDP of Siloam (ZIP code 27047) had a population of 1,233. It is a Piedmont Triad community.

Demographics

Siloam's Zip Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) has a population of about 1,233 as of the 2000 census. The population is 51.5% male and 48.5% female. About 94% of the population is white, .4% African-American, 0.1% American Indian, 0.2% Asian, 9.4% Hispanic, and 4.48% of another races. 0.8% of people are two or more races. There are no native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders.

The median household income is $36,719 with 9.7% of the population living below the poverty line.

Nearby towns

Dobson, Pilot Mountain, Boonville and East Bend.

History

The community grew around Siloam Methodist Church, which was established in 1818. The church was named for the biblical Pool of Siloam. ["Images of America Surry County", by Carolyn Boyles, Page 89 ]

A post office was established in Siloam in 1837.

The area began a period of growth in 1890 when it became a stop on the former Southern Railway. The Yadkin Valley Railroad, which runs just north of the Yadkin in Surry County, now uses the tracks. [ [http://www.ncrailways.net/companies/YVRR.htm North Carolina Railway Association website] ]

Bridge collapse

Four people were killed and 16 people injured when the one-lane steel span bridge connecting Yadkin and Surry counties in Siloam collapsed on February 23, 1975. The collapse brought national attention to bridge safety and was reported in national magazines, including Reader's Digest, and on "The CBS Evening News". [ [http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1975-2/1975-02-24-CBS-17.html Vanderbilt Television News Archive] ]

The Atkinson-Needham Memorial Bridge, which was built at the site of the old bridge, was named in honor of the four victims – Hugh and Ola Marion Atkinson and Judy Needham and her 3-year-old daughter, Andrea Lee. ["The Heritage of Yadkin County", Frances Harding Casstevens, editor; Page 108] Among those rescued from the collapse was current Surry County Sheriff Graham Atkinson, who was 10 at the time. [ [http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173352243624 "Into the Darkness: Minneapolis tragedy stirs painful memories of a cold night in 1975," Winston-Salem Journal article, August 3, 2007 ] ]

According to an National Transportation Safety Board report, the accident started about 9:25 p.m. when a car struck a timber railing on the bridge, causing the bridge to collapse in to the rain-swollen river. In heavy fog, six more vehicles within a 17-minute period drove off the bridge. [ [http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/1976/HAR7603.htm NTSB highway accident report] ]

By the 1970s, state officials had hung a sign on the second-hand bridge that read, “Local Traffic Only."

The bridge, which had originally been used near High Rock Lake, was reassembled in Siloam in 1938. It was listed as deficient and needing repair or replacement in a 1974 state report. Troy Doby, the state secretary of transportation, said later that “it should have been replaced, but it was a question of money."

Weeks before the collapse, Hugh Atkinson had urged state officials to tear it down. The Atkinson family later found a letter in his coat pocket that he had written to the governor’s office urging action on the bridge.

Maps of Siloam and surrounding area

See also

* Siloam Township

External links

* [http://journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173352245617&path=!news!updates&s=1037645509099 Winston-Salem Journal, Audio Slideshow: Siloam Bridge Collapse of 1975]

References