Fourteen witnesses, one blank incident code, and a structural inspection that keeps not happening — Point Pleasant is having a week.

POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. — I am standing on the Ohio River bank at 6:14 in the morning, I have been here since before the fog lifted, and I am looking at the Silver Memorial Bridge. Fourteen people told us — fourteen, which I am writing down as I say it — that they saw something large and winged perched on the upper chord of that bridge sometime between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. Wednesday. The West Virginia Division of Highways has, for the third consecutive week, postponed the scheduled structural inspection of this bridge. Their stated reason is that ‘conditions above the upper chord remain non-compliant with inspector access protocols.’ That sentence is doing a lot of work. I want to know what is inside that sentence.

The delay is logged internally under Incident Code W-119. I filed a records request for the description field attached to that code at 7:22 this morning. The description field is blank. Not redacted — blank. There is a difference and it matters and I have written it down in the notebook. Three weeks of postponements. Three weeks of a single code. Three weeks of nothing in the box where the explanation goes. I want to be precise here: the Silver Memorial Bridge was built in 1969 as a direct response to the collapse of the original Silver Bridge in December of 1967, which killed forty-six people. The people of this town know what a bridge inspection delay means. The people of this town are paying attention. So am I.

Community Notice

What Fourteen People Saw

I have spoken personally to seven of the fourteen confirmed witnesses. Four others have provided written accounts to WTC. The remaining three have not returned calls, which I am also writing down because that is its own data point. The accounts are consistent in the ways that matter: large, dark, wingspan estimated between eight and twelve feet by people who were sober and standing still and had no obvious reason to lie to me. It was seen perched, not flying — perched, on the upper structure, which is approximately eighty-three feet above the waterline. Two witnesses independently described the same detail without being prompted, and I am not printing that detail yet because I am waiting on a third confirmation, and I have learned — slowly, at some cost — to wait.

I know what I saw up there. I’ve driven that bridge my whole life. Whatever was sitting on it Wednesday night, it wasn’t equipment, it wasn’t a bird, and it wasn’t something that should make anyone feel good about where we are right now.

— Darnell Hutchins, Point Pleasant resident and witness, speaking from the Route 2 overlook

I contacted the West Virginia Division of Highways press office this morning and asked three specific questions: What does W-119 designate? Who made the determination that conditions are non-compliant? And has any human inspector physically accessed the upper chord in the past twenty-one days? I received one response, which read, in full: ‘The Division appreciates your inquiry and will respond through appropriate channels in due course.’ I have added this to the outstanding answers list. It is item forty-seven on the current page. I started a new page in Parkersburg two days ago.

The code W-119 is not a standard delay classification. I’ve worked structural compliance for eleven years. That prefix doesn’t correspond to weather, equipment, or contractor availability. I don’t know what it corresponds to. That’s what I’m telling you — I don’t know.

— Source, former state infrastructure contractor, name withheld at source’s request

I want to say something carefully, because I think it is important to say carefully. The Mothman sightings of 1966 and 1967 preceded a structural disaster that killed forty-six people on a bridge in this exact town. I am not saying history is repeating. I am saying that forty-six people died, and that this community built a new bridge in their memory, and that the new bridge has now had its inspection delayed three times under a code with no explanation, and that fourteen people saw something on that bridge this week. I am a reporter. I write down what I can confirm. What I can confirm right now is the delay, the code, the blank field, and the fourteen witnesses. What I cannot yet confirm is what was on that bridge. I am staying until I can. Gerald is fine. Dispatch ate this morning — Claudia confirmed it at 6:40 — and I have nine cases of Dragon Ice in the truck. I am not going anywhere.