Dotted across eastern Kentucky, you'll find swinging bridges that connect rural communities.

This year, with the passage of Senate Bill 261.

Landowners and local governments can work together to maintain these unique structures.

Here's more from Kentucky Edition's Clayton Dalton in Manchester.

Towering above the rivers and creeks of eastern Kentucky, you'll find an important part of Appalachian history.

Swinging bridges a symbol of cultural pride.

They also serve as critical infrastructure in times of serious flooding.

Years ago, a lot of people traveled the edges of the rivers to get places.

But when the river got up, you couldn't get across them.

So it was your method of getting from one side of the river to the other side, because the bridges were either be washed out or under water.

Mountain communities like Manchester are investing in recreational tourism, and these swinging bridges are a vital part of that conversation.

Whether you agree or not with what's happened to the coal industry, people understand there has to be a diversification of the economy in here that we just can't rely on fossil fuels.

We need to do other things.

So you're seeing other communities really get into what can we do, you know, to create a diverse economy.

And one of them that we have and probably our biggest asset is people love this top of this, this type of terrain, this type of atmosphere.

It's a lot more laid back than the city life.

And so people come down here and spend that time, Many of the swinging bridges in eastern Kentucky have fallen into disrepair until now.

Cities and counties were wary to maintain the bridges and take on that liability.

But with the passage of Senate Bill 261, all that has changed.

So.

But the bridge, nobody knows who the owner is.

So if they were to spend money on this bridge, they would get a bad mark in their audit saying, why did you spend money on something you didn't own?

Same thing for the county.

But when the water gets up, that was a pretty integral part.

Not here, but the other places you'll see about being able to get out of the house across the road and you'll see where people park.

And so nobody wanted to keep them up because they didn't one want liability and two, they didn't want to get deemed on an audit.

So that's what the legislation change that says it's permissive cities and counties can spend monies on these without getting in trouble with the state auditor.

And because nobody really knows the clear definition, you're assuming responsibility coming out here.

So we reduce the liability under like the Tourism Development Act.

So it's kind of like getting on a four Wheeler.

And it's almost identical to what we did with the four Wheeler trails.

If you're going to go on the trails use and liability, you know what you're doing running through manholes and going up mountains and everything else.

Don't come back and sue us.

When you took the risk.

Will Boling grew up in the region and used a swinging bridge to access his family's farm, named the Old Homeplace Bridge.

The all metal structure remains a symbol and a utility.

He says he's happy with the new legislation that allows cities and counties to preserve these bridges, and for the protection it offers landowners.

Personally, I believe it's a great thing.

It's, one of those things where in the past we've always been happy to been happy to share the bridges with folks.

A while people will come out and, and take part in, get out, walk across them, see everything there is to see.

But it was always something in the back of your mind.

What happens if somebody gets hurt?

If, something of that nature.

So having the ability to have that the, the recreational liability protections, but also having some of the, some of the dollars to upkeep the bridges is absolutely huge.

The bridges don't just impact individual families or out of town visitors.

You can think about it.

There could be, one by one bridge built, and it may serve a community of maybe ten families.

You know, they might be a mile or so stretched out, but it was it was the community thing.

And mostly where we built them was where it would serve the best, for the community.

Oftentimes through the way I look at when we're going through and thinking about the things that we can do to make make the community more, more amenable to folks coming in, to see it and, to hang out and enjoy the things that we have.

It's also making things better for those of us who live here at the same time, too.

There's no question that Eastern Kentucky swinging bridges offer tourists a special experience.

But for locals, preserving these landmarks means even more.

For some, it's hard to put into.

Words.

That they're still necessity sometimes, but it's it's still, it's it's it's just something you just something to get you here.

For Kentucky edition.

I'm Clayton Dalton.