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A tractor-trailer, while trying to turn at the historic War Memorial Monument in downtown Elizabethton, destroyed a cannon that was part of the monument site. The accident happened Tuesday.

A report from the Elizabethton Police Department stated the tractor-trailer was headed east on Elk Avenue when it struck the cannon and concrete slab by the monument. Cannons are located on either side of the monument.

According to the police report, the driver later told police that he did not feel the impact of the hit, nor did he realize he was dragging a piece of the concrete slab under his truck until he noticed smoke coming from under the trailer and pulled over on Highway 91.

The driver of the truck was charged with failure to exercise due care, according to the police report.

City of Elizabethton Public Information Officer Ivan Sanders, in a report, said that the tight confines of the roadway around the monument are not conducive to driving a tractor-trailer through.

“Where the roundabout is, it’s not big enough for a semi to take that turn,” Sanders said. “And he took the cannon out on the south side of the monument. The monument itself was not damaged,” Sanders reported.

Sanders said the only solution to the issue is to get the traffic flowing back the way it flowed before the Broad Street Bridge was closed. The repairs on the Broad Street Bridge are scheduled for completion, and the bridge is set to reopen in May of this year.

He also noted that the city does not plan to replace the cannon or make repairs at the monument site until the traffic issue is resolved.

In a news release from the Elizabethton-Carter County Library, Joe Penza, archivist, wrote: “The Elizabethton-Carter County Public Library is deeply dismayed by the destruction of a portion of our beloved Soldiers Monument on the afternoon of Tuesday, Feb. 25.”

Some pertinent facts from the archives of the City of Elizabethton regarding the monument show the cannons that adorn it and past damages it has suffered.

The Soldiers Monument was constructed throughout 1912 and 1913 and dedicated on Oct. 13, 1913.

In 1916, the War Department in Washington, D.C., donated two cannons and several cannonballs, which were installed on pedestals at the base of the monument, one pointing north and one pointing south.

The monument was struck by a semi-truck in 1999, and the owning company out of Blountville paid to repair the damages. The last time a vehicle damaged the monument was in October 2000, when it was struck in a hit-and-run accident and one of the cannon pedestals was damaged. The perpetrator was never identified, and donations were accepted from the community to fund the repairs.