Last summer’s rains put the nail in an old coffin of a bridge separating a handful of Newton County residents from the remainder of the county.

Tuesday night, the county commissioners voted unanimously to replace the wooden bridge off Hodges Circle near the Morgan County line with a steel bridge. The cost: $32,593.

Commissioner John Douglas, who represents the area, made the motion to replace the bridge.

“This is very important to the people of my district simply because there are a number of families in Newton County who are cut off from Newton County,” he said.

He said the bridge “took a lot of water” from 70 inches of rain recorded in the county last year. But the rain “didn’t kill it; it was just the final straw.”

He described the bridge as something from another era.

“It’s a one-lane bridge kind of like you see in the movies, clunkity, clunkity, clunkity,” he said. “We’re in the 21st century. We need a better bridge.”

The bridge will be replaced in two or three months.