Historic Rugby and a Very Tall Bridge

There's a tiny historic town found in East Tennessee called Rugby that you've probably never heard of. British author and social reformer, Thomas Hughes, famous for his classic novel, Tom Brown's Schooldays, dedicated the Rugby Colony amid great fanfare on October 5, 1880. He envisioned this new community as a place where those who wished could build a strong agricultural community through cooperative enterprise, while maintaining a cultured, Christian lifestyle, free from the rigid class distinctions that prevailed in Britain. 

One of the crops meant for this agricultural community was tomatoes. By looking at a labeled can in the Rugby museum, it is easy to see why it may have failed to become everything they had hoped for. The label shows a picture of ripe tomatoes being picked from a tree like an apple. Tomatoes obviously grow on vines and not trees; however, they must have done something right because their legacy remains perfectly preserved today.  

My great grandfather grew up in Rugby and helped run a ferry across the river before a bridge was built. The house where he lived burned down but a replica was built in its place. After marrying my great grandmother, they moved to Jamestown, TN where most of my extended family still lives.  

The bridge to Rugby is a bit of a hidden gem. If you live in Tennessee, you're probably familiar with the Natchez Trace Bridge for its towering height of about 150 ft. However, contrary to popular belief, the Natchez Trace is not the highest bridge in Tennessee and is towered over by the bridge to Rugby by about 50 feet at its height of around 200 feet. Just in case you're wondering, the actual tallest bridge in Tennessee is neither of these. In fact, the New River Railroad Bridge at 389 feet tall.  

If you want to take a trip to see Historic Rugby, I highly suggest it. The drive is especially beautiful in the Fall.