First, here's the location.

The bridge is a Parker Through Truss Swing. Parker is a type of truss whose upper chord,  is polygonal in form. The bridge is a free swinging bridge to allow boat traffic to pass on the river. Read about it here.

This bridge is notable for many senior Searcians because in 1947 the superintendent of public schools, Lester Mason, drove his car into the river at the bridge and drowned. I will provide more details later.

Yes Barbara, the old Judsonia bridge. Gone is what the term "lost" refers to.

Here's the article about Lester Mason's demise in the Searcy Daily Citizen dated Monday May 19, 1947.

This is a page from Paula's mother, Annie's scrapbook.

I have run one article through a OCR and this is the text.

Superintendent W. L. Mason Killed in Tragic Accident Saturday Night.

Searcy—W. Lester Mason. 42, superintendent Seacy schools for  a number of years, was killed about  7:30 p. m. yesterday when his car  

left the highway as it approached  the bridge across the Little Red  river between Searcy and Judsonia,  and plunged down a 40-foot em

bankment into 20 feet of water.  Cause of the accident had not been determined  last night.  Mr. Mason had been visiting in  Bald knob and was returning home. 

A  fisherman. Bill Walker,  said he heard a crash and saw the car run off the highway at the curve approaching the bridge and disappear in the water. There are  

no guard rails at the curve.  A wrecker from Searcy removed the car about 9:15 p. m. after more than an hour of grappling in the flood-swollen river. 

Mr. Mason was taken to a hospital in Searcy in a Daniel Funeral Home ambulance, but he was  pronounced dead. The body later was  removed to the funeral home. 

His  wrist watch had stopped at 7:25  p. m. 

White County Sheriff John Martin, Coroner Elvis Daniel and State Patrolman Ed Coward investigated. 

Mr. Mason is survived by his widow: two daughters, Gloria and Betty, all of the home, and his mother, of Bald Knob. 

A native of Bald Knob  attended- Searcy High School and Hendrix College. He was a member of the Kiwanis Club and the Board of Stewards of the First Methodist Church. 

He was to have taken part  in baccalaureate services of Searcy High School tomorrow and commencement exercises Friday night. 

I believe this is a view of the place where the car left the road.

I believe that picture of Lester Mason came from Harold Gene's collection. Harold's dad and Mr. Mason ran track together at Hendrix. Recently there were 1920, 1921, and 1923 SHS yearbooks for sale on eBay. I bought the 1920 and Anita got the 1923 for Gloria Mason Henderson, Mason's daughter, because her dad was in it as a senior at SHS. I had sent a copy of the Citizen article to Gloria as well.

I did quite a bit of research to find out what "free" meant. I believe it means the ends of the bridge are not firmly attached but are free. The bridge moves on rollers until it leaves the platform and then it moves freely by not having anything under the ends.

Another curious term used to describe the bridge was "lost".  It seems that when a bridge is no longer in service it is defined as lost meaning it is no longer in use.

Mary, Davis Rd or CR76 was the shortcut crossing point over the Little Red River at that time. I think it was called the Judsonia Road. If we plug in the coordinates 35°16'12" N, 91°42'26" W  from the Bridgehunter site, into Google Earth we get that location as it appears today.

There were places near the  bridge to buy fresh fish. The fish in the river at that time were Drum, Buffalo, and Catfish because the water was much warmer than the lake fed water today.

Well folks, I think confusion about bridges near Judsonia and Searcy exists because there were two swinging bridges close together. Here's the one called the Judsonia Bridge. You can see this was a different bridge from the one on the postcard. This is the one called the Judsonia to Kensett bridge.

--photo courtesy Gerald Torrence, White County Historical Society

Judsonia Bridge

This beautiful modern-day scene on Little Red River at Judsonia captures one of the most unique bridges in Arkansas. The cantilevered turn span highway bridge across the river at Judsonia was completed in 1924. It is the only center-bearing swing bridge which survives in the state. The R.L. Gaster Construction Company of Little Rock erected the 2265-foot main span while the residents of Judsonia displayed community spirit in donating time and money to the approaches. The bridge was constructed as part of a national modernizing movement to improve roads, giving the town of Judsonia access to outlying regions on the opposite side of the river. As steamboats came up Little Red River, the bridge's turn mechanism was operated by one person in the center of the bridge using a key or lever that fit directly into the gars. The peak at the top of the bridge structurally aided in centering the weight over the center pivot and in supporting the ends when the bridge was open. The bridge ceased to turn in the late 1920s as navigation on the river diminished. For additional information, see the 1989 edition of White County Heritage, published by the White County Historical Society, P.O. Box 537, Searcy, AR 72145. 

Another article says this:

The “sister bridge” to Judsonia’s bridge was the old Little Red River Bridge between Judsonia and Searcy. The two were conceived at the same time, though politics and legal issues delayed the building of the Judsonia bridge.

This bridge is still in use and if you would like to see it, watch this video.

Harold is referring to suspension bridges that sway from sde to side and up and down as vehicles roll across it. That was the typical way bridges were supported. For a kid, I think they were fun to be on while they were moving. I remember one somewhere as a kid.