 By 1911 the river was crossed , on the same site , with a steel bridge . This new structure had concrete buttresses and a wooden roadway . In March of that year floods over @-@ topped it by approximately 10 feet ( 3 @.@ 0 m ) and five of the bridge 's seven spans went down , girders were broken , piers sheared through , and some swept into the river . The bridge was repaired later in the year and stood for another half century . Over time , particularly after floods , there were calls for the bridge to be raised , though the expense of the work — and the only occasional nature of flooding — was cited in defence of the bridge 's adequacy . When the river flooded the bridge , it also often flooded Beams Ford on the other side of Hadspen , temporarily cutting off all road access to the town . 
