Kootenai Falls swinging bridge structurally sound

The Kootenai Falls swinging bridge remains safe to use, say U.S. Forest Service officials.

The federal agency reaffirmed the bridge’s structural stability on Facebook after learning area residents were questioning its safety on social media, said Willie Sykes, a public affairs specialist with the agency.

Photos shared online show vertical cables slipping free from the grooves of wooden cross members. Sykes said the slipped cable is an aesthetic problem, but not a safety concern.

“There was something floating around on Facebook and we thought we should get something out by telling people that the bridge was structurally sound,” he said. “I thought we would just get ahead of it.”

If problems—aesthetic or otherwise—persist, the Forest Service will send the Spokane-based contractor that rebuilt the bridge out to the site, Sykes said.

“As of now, it’s fine,” he said.