At a grant ceremony  in the Governor's Reception Room on August 29, 2005, Terry Lively of the West Virginia Department of Transportation's Communications Office accepted a FHWA TEA-21 grant from Governor Joe Manchin.

This grant will be allow for continuation of the “CROSSINGS - Bridge Building in West Virginia^©”, a documentary funded with a FHWA TEA-21 grant last year and being produced by the West Virginia Department of Transportation in conjunction with Digital Vision Works, a West Virginia film and video production company.  This documentary focuses on the history of bridge-building in West Virginia and will show the formidable terrain our forefathers faced and how they overcame these transportation barriers.  The documentary is due for completion in March 2006,

Due to the abundance of material, a book, a multi-media presentation and a website will be produced.  This will allow for the presentation of this information to Public Broadcasting, the new West Virginia State Museum, state libraries and schools. 

The book will be printed with a soft-cover and full-color photographs showing the bridges, their significant features, engineering details and history.  Distribution will be  handled through WV Public Broadcasting, Division of Tourism and the Parkways Authority.  As there is a great deal of interest in transportation-related information in the education and engineering fields, it is expected these books will useful in local and regional marketing, travel and tourism, industrial development and as a chronicle of some of the history of our state.

The multi-media presentation will be made into tailored modules to fit educational needs, which will be defined by the WV Department of Education’s Curriculum instructors.  The initial meeting about the project was met with excitement by the Department of Education.  They saw it as meeting a need in the 4^th, 8^th and high school level in the areas of science, math, history and technology. The Dept. of Ed also felt/thought that there was great potential for use at the university levels as well, particularly in the field of engineering.  This presentation will allow the user to tailor their search for information, delving as deeply as they want into the engineering, construction and historic aspects of West Virginia bridges.

After a recent meeting with West Virginia Public Broadcasting, they were so enthused about the project, they expressed a commitment to seek to air the documentary on the American Public Broadcasting Network, which will provide not only a statewide audience but also a national one.  They were also interested in incorporating the material in a new system being introduced to the school system whereby 25-30 different multi-media presentations will be available for purchase by schools on an external hard drive.

The website will broadly sketch out the details of “CROSSINGS - Bridge Building in West Virginia” and help disseminate the information.  It will provide links for the user to search out additional information.