Places · Landmark
Double Arch Bridge
The Natchez Trace Parkway's concrete bridge over Birdsong Hollow and Highway 96, finished in 1994 and the first segmental concrete arch bridge built in the United States. It has been closed to cars, bikes and walkers since April 15, 2026, while a permanent safety barrier goes on and it is repainted; the Park Service expects it back in spring 2027.
The facts
Where and what.
- What it is
- Landmark, bridge
- Town
- Franklin, Williamson County
- Website
- nps.gov
- What it costs
- Free, when it is open.
- What is there
- The parkway is closed from the Highway 96 ramp at milepost 437 to the Big Tree Overlook at milepost 440. The detour is 7.5 miles by Highways 96 and 100, and cyclists are asked to park at the Highway 96 ramp lot. The Park Service's status page gives April 2026 to May 2027.
- 1,572 feet long and about 155 feet above the hollow, by the Park Service's figures; one of its own pages says 1,648 feet.
- A Presidential Award for Design Excellence in 1995. The bridge is eligible for the National Register.
- Neighborhood guide
- Leiper's Fork: where to live, what it costs, the trade-offs
- Sources
- National Park Service: the Double Arch Bridge at Birdsong Hollow
- National Park Service: Double Arch Bridge to close for construction (Apr. 10, 2026)
- National Park Service: road and site status
- Williamson Herald: Natchez Trace Parkway bridge closes (Apr. 14, 2026)
- National Park Service: Birdsong Hollow Double Arch Bridge, milepost 438
This month
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Nearby
Also in Franklin.
Timberland Park.
Williamson County's nature park on the Natchez Trace Parkway, just south of the Highway 96 ramps: an interpretive center, a butterfly garden, an overlook and about five miles of trail. It opened on 80 acres in 2014 and grew to about 325 in 2015, when the county joined it to the Big East Fork reserve.
Carnton.
The McGavock family's 1826 house on Lewisburg Pike, which became the area's largest field hospital after the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864, with the McGavock Confederate Cemetery beside it. The Battle of Franklin Trust gives tours of the house, the grounds and the Eastern Flank battlefield.
Carter House.
The Carter family's brick farmhouse of about 1830 on Columbia Avenue, the Union command post at the center of the Battle of Franklin. The farm office and smokehouse still carry more than a thousand bullet and shrapnel holes. The state owns it, and the Battle of Franklin Trust gives the tours.
Franklin Public Square.
Landmark in Franklin.
Lotz House.
The house Johann Albert Lotz, a German-born carpenter and piano maker, finished in 1858 across Columbia Avenue from the Carter House. It took cannon fire in the battle and then served as a hospital for both armies. The Lotz House Foundation runs it as a museum, and the woodwork is the reason to go.
1799 Kitchen & Bar Room.
Event venue in Franklin.
503 Bloomhouse.
A second-floor shop on Main Street that sells consigned designer handbags, shoes and accessories and takes consignments. Its site says two sisters started it.
Anthropologie.
Clothing, accessories and home goods at The Factory, with Anthropologie Weddings and Terrain under the same roof. It moved there from Main Street in August 2026.