(WSAZ Photo / Alex Snyder)

(WSAZ Photo / Alex Snyder)

UPDATE 3/8/13 @ 11 a.m.
NITRO, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Memories are all that's left of the Nitro-St. Albans bridge.

The final piece of the bridge was demolished on Friday.

Jessica Taylor, 9, of Nitro, Thomas Walls, 92, a World War II Veteran, better known as "Frosty," had the honor of pushing the button that set off the explosion.

Hundreds lined up to get a good view of the demolition.

Taylor’s name was selected to be a part of history during a raffle sponsored by Nitro City Council.

"I did it, i did it," Taylor said as the bridge came down.

Walls says he has a lot of memories with this bridge.

"I got a kick out of it. It's actually nothing new to me. I was in a bomb in the Airforce. It brings back old memories," Walls said.

The St. Albans side of the bridge was blown up last week.

In February, crews began cutting sections of the bridge and lowering them onto a barge to be shipped to a Kokosing company scrapyard. But officials said the remaining pieces were too heavy and decided to use explosives to blast them apart.

The former bridge was built in the late 1920s and had gone through a lot of wear and tear over the decades.

The new bridge connecting Nitro and St. Albans is expected to open by November.

Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for the latest information.

This time it's the Nitro side of the Dick Henderson Memorial Bridge. Hundreds came out last Friday to see the St. Albans side of the bridge blown up.

The demolition starts at 10 a.m. If you want to watch the bridge come down, there are two viewing areas set up. One viewing area is at Roadside Park in St. Albans and the other is located near Center Street just off Route 25.

At 8:30 a.m. Friday, Center Street will close to traffic. Then, at 9:30 a.m. Main Avenue at Holly Street will shut down.

Nitro Elementary student Jessica Taylor and a World War II Veteran will push the button to blow up the bridge.

In February, crews began cutting sections of the bridge and lowering them onto a barge to be shipped to a Kokosing company scrapyard. But officials had said the remaining pieces were too heavy and decided to shoot explosives to blast them apart.

Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for the latest information.

Three women pulled the lever that set off the explosives. One of those women, Q.D. Wood, was among the first to cross the bridge when it opened 79 years ago.

"It was just amazing to think about how many times I had gone across that bridge," Wood said.

Wood first crossed the bridge with the assistance of her red wagon. She told WSAZ.com her older brother pulled her to the bridge and the two walked across together.

Since first crossing the bridge, Wood has been involved in local and state politics. She said one of her greatest accomplishments is being involved with the Rosie the Riveter group.

Rosie the Riveters worked in factories during World War II producing war supplies like bombs. Wood was featured on NBC's The Today Show because of her involvement with the group.

Despite all the accomplishments, Wood said being involved with the implosion Friday was very dear to her heart.

"Well, it's here in St. Albans so it's special," Wood said.

The Nitro portion of the bridge will be detonated at 10 a.m. March 8. The Department of Transportation said the new bridge will be complete by November.

Wood plans on attending both events.

The Dick Henderson Memorial Bridge was demolished at 10 a.m. Friday. The bridge used to span the Kanawha River is being replaced by a new bridge.

In February, crews began cutting sections of the bridge and lowering them onto a barge to be shipped to a Kokosing company scrapyard. But officials had said the remaining pieces were too heavy and decided to shoot explosives to blast them apart.

Because the demolition drew lot of interest, the West Virginia Department of Transportation held a watch party at the St. Albans Roadside Park off U.S. 60. Dozens of people lined Route 60 to see part of the bridge come down.

At 9:55 a.m., police shut down traffic on Route 60 at the intersections of 4th Street and 2nd Street. Part of 3rd Street was also closed.

The 79-year-old bridge's Nitro side is set for implosion on March 8.

Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for the latest information.

For the past month, crews have been working to cut the bridge into sections and ship it out.

However, The Division of Highways says the rest of the steel is too heavy to lift, so it will have to be blasted.

The St. Albans side of the bridge will come down on March 1st at 10 o' clock in the morning.

The DOH says the Nitro side will be blasted on March 8th at the same time.

Drivers had their first opportunity to find out which alternate routes are going to work best for them.

The St. Albans exit of Interstate 64 had some drivers waiting 15 minutes or more to get on Route 817.

Bill Brown works as a delivery man for an auto parts store. He says the traffic slowed him down significantly.

"It's been really hard just doing deliveries,” Brown said. “Normally my short runs are about five minutes. Now it's taking 30 to 40 minutes just to make one delivery."

However, MacCorkle Avenue by the bridge at evening rush hour flowed smoothly.

"I didn't know how it was going to turn out on the first day,” St. Albans Police Patrolman Dan Wyatt said. “I'm pleased to see it looks light through town at this intersection."

"I get to choose either the St. Albans exit or Dunbar exit, so that's my choices for this year -- but I just deal with it and go on," said Bob Evans as he sat in traffic on his way to work.

The new bridge isn’t scheduled to open until November, so drivers will have to hit the road earlier to pad their commute, something they learned the hard way during the morning rush hour.

"I think it's going to be a lot of congestion -- I take my oldest daughter out earlier to McKinley and there was so much traffic that we were late getting her to school," said Amanda Stanley.

"It's going to be a real inconvenience to go shopping at the Walmart and whatever -- we go over there a couple of times a week to get our groceries and other odds and ends. So it's going to take us about 20 minutes longer to get there," said William McCormick.

But time isn’t the only thing these drivers are afraid of losing.

"Yeah a lot of gas prices and without an economy car you can't afford to do it hardly, especially on a fixed income," said McCormick.

Still, while sitting in traffic is less than desirable, most agree that replacing the bridge must be done.

"Hopefully, come November, you know, everything will be well and traffic will be back to normal," said Stanley.

"There's nothing you can do, you just have to live with it – unfortunately," said McCormick.

Keep clicking on WSAZ.com for the latest information.

UPDATE 1/7/12 @ 7:15 a.m.
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A busy bridge between two cities in Kanawha County is now closed to traffic.

The Nitro-St. Albans Bridge or also known as the "Dick Henderson Memorial Bridge" closed at 6 a.m. Monday.

Crews will begin demolition on the bridge to put a new one in its place.

If you want to get around this closure, you can take the Nitro exit off off Interstate 64 or the Dunbar Toll Bridge.

The new bridge is expected to open in November.

Fire officials tell WSAZ.com the closure will disrupt an automatic aid relationship between St. Albans fire department and the Nitro Fire Department.

"If we had to go around [the bridge,] it would go from about one minute now for being in the Nitro city limits to about 10 or 11 minutes," said St. Albans fire chief Stephen Parsons.

Now, the Nitro department will get extra help from Dunbar, and St. Albans will be reinforced by South Charleston.

St. Albans will bring in a staffed fire engine from Spring Hill to help pick up the slack, according to Parsons.

"You've just got to think down the road, 'what can we do that's going to best serve the public but also protect the guys and give them some backup?'" Parsons said.

Officials say the changes will not affect response time for emergencies.

"I was worried at first," manager Charlene Martin said at the Living Water Thrift Store in Nitro. She's proud to serve a small community with her business, but wonders whether the shutdown will impair traffic to her store.

And she's not alone. At the nearby Valley Cash and Feed Store, co-owner Patrice Banker is concerned about continuing to serve her elderly customers after the closure.

"A lot of them don't like to drive anyway, and they're not familiar with the different routes," she said.

That's why Banker decided to start a delivery service this year, which she says will run twice a week in St. Albans and the surrounding areas.

She says she toyed with the idea of creating a satellite business, but decided that wasn't as economically feasible as the delivery service.

Although the thought of losing revenue makes them nervous, most business owners told WSAZ.com that they agree the bridge needs work, and that shutting it down for about a year is a much better option than closing it completely.

"It's an old bridge," Martin said with a laugh.

Banker says she's just looking forward to when construction is finished, and believes her regulars will stick with her through the hassle.

"A lot of people are loyal customers and they already told us they will drive around it," she said.

Alternate routes to the construction include taking the Nitro exit off of I-64 or taking the Dunbar Toll Bridge.