ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, April 20, 1996               TAG: 9604220014
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PEMBROKE 
SOURCE: CLAYTON BRADDOCK STAFF WRITER 

NEW PEMBROKE BRIDGE IS GIVEN A NEW NAME

Naming buildings, bridges and highways always presents hazards for elected officials.

They are almost as dangerous as land mines, especially if the name chosen is some well-known person still alive.

"Why didn't you name it for my Uncle Harvey," might be a common hazard thrown at unthinking officials.

The Giles County Board of Supervisors stepped around that hazard Thursday.

What was always called the Old Pembroke Bridge across the New River, now nearing a summer completion date, is now the Castle Rock Bridge, unanimously chosen Thursday by the board.

"At least it's not for someone living," said Chairman William Freeman, acknowledging the hazard avoided.

Changing the name of the new bridge will take the old one - the only steel-span bridge in Virginia - into the history books without a namesake and give a new name to its $2.5 million replacement.

Castle Rock is a well-known name in the Pembroke area. Witness the Castle Rock Baptist Church, the Castle Rock Public Recreation Facility, Castle Rock Road - which leads to the recreation area and through the area leading to the bridge - and the Castle Rock Insurance Agency in Pearisburg.

The old bridge, parallel to the new one, is still named the Old Pembroke Bridge and may keep the name as long as it stands after the summer completion of the new structure.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has been negotiating with groups that might take some or all or the old bridge, name and all.

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