Highbridge: The Kentucky Underground Spring Water Company
When W.R. “Bill” Griffin began operations in Wilmore in the early 1980’s he was told the quarry wouldn’t be much good as a storage company unless he figured out some way of getting rid of that water in the back. Well, it took him a while to figure it out, but we think he came up with a pretty good idea – and we hope you agree.
In 1982 when Highbridge was just getting started it was a family operation. The “girls and Dad” would fill the gallon bottles – back then it was only gallon bottles, nothing else – then load the pickup truck. Daughters Linda and Mary would leave the quarry in High Bridge with the instructions from their Dad, “Don’t come back until you’ve sold all that water.”
At that time bottled water was unknown in Kentucky. There was a distilled product on the shelves of some stores for use in steam irons, but no stores were selling bottled drinking water. It took a brave store manager to put it on the shelf and certainly no one had home delivery back then so the stores were the only “big” customers.
In the early days Highbridge and especially the girls making the runs knew there were certain stores they could count on to take some of their drinking water. The funny thing is that we count several of those stores among our customers even today. The girls always knew they could count on Leonard and John Fitch at Fitch’s IGA in Wilmore to take “whatever was left on the pickup truck” when they were headed back to the quarry. Fitch’s IGA is still a good customer today. Laurel Grocery, one of the few independent wholesale grocery companies remaining, has been one of Highbridge’s strongest supporters for the full history of the company.
Over time the business grew to the point where today we count several thousand Kentuckians among our customers – homes, businesses and stores alike. But somehow it’s neat to know that some of those from the early days are still with us today. Highbridge is Kentucky Proud and Proud of Kentucky as well.
Our company's namesake
High Bridge outside Wilmore, KY circa 1907. Designed by John Roebling, the bridge opened in 1877 and is the second highest bridge over a navigable stream in the entire United States.
Highbridge's Sister: Kentucky Underground Storage
Subterranean Storage
Spanning an impressive 32 acres, our main facility has millions of cubic feet of storage space deep below ground.
Some KUSI facts
- KUSI has established a strong reputation as a leader in the records management industry.
- Temperate, dry and naturally pest-free storage environment.
- The underground location provides unique protection from natural disasters, such as tornadoes, electrical storms, earthquakes and floods.
- KUSI employs a resident guard and an electronic security system monitored 24 hours a day from a central monitoring station.
- Our custom-designed dehumidification system maintains the humidity below 60%.
- Our service representatives are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
- Document imaging and storage coupled with our Scan-On-Demand service can provide needed copies of critical documents the same day they are requested.
- Isolated maximum security vaults designed for storing data on magnetic media, offer protection for storage that meets stringent standards.
- Our bar-coding system guarantees complete accuracy. By scanning each item, bar-coding not only ensures the material remains classified, but it also increases our efficiency in accurately locating and retrieving materials.
Highbridge's Namesake: High Bridge
Our company, like the community of High Bridge, KY gets its name from a landmark railroad bridge which, at 308 feet tall, is the highest bridge over a navigable stream in the entire United States.
This railroad suspension bridge is considered one of the most remarkable engineering undertakings of the 19th century. High Bridge was designed by John Roebling, who also designed New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge, and connects Jessamine and Mercer Counties.
We thought our customers might be interested in High Bridge – the bridge. It has quite an interesting history, and the community around it has been closely allied with the fortunes of the bridge since construction first began. Originally planned as a suspension bridge for the Lexington and Danville railroad, it was designed by John Roebling, who later would design the world-famous Brooklyn Bridge and the Roebling Suspension Bridge which today connects Covington to Cincinnati. Work began in the 1850s with towers for the suspension cables being built during that time. Construction was suspended during the Civil War. Afterwards, plans were altered and construction was resumed by the Cincinnati Southern Railway and the bridge opened in 1877 as the first cantilever bridge built on the American continent.
All aboard!
A train travels across the 1,125 foot long expanse of the High Bridge circa 1907.
It was dedicated by president Rutherford B. Hayes in 1879. The 275/308-foot tall and 1,125 foot long bridge crosses the deep gorge of the Kentucky River between Jessamine and Mercer counties. Being, at the time, the highest railroad bridge in North America and the highest railroad bridge in the world, High Bridge at once became a tourist attraction. Its popularity was at a peak during the first 20 years of the 1900s.
A new bridge was built around the existing structure in 1911, and expanded to two tracks in 1929. The same year, the large twin towers were torn down, and its popularity slowly faded. High Bridge still attracts interested parties who marvel at its amazing superstructure.
Other attractions in the area today are High Bridge Park, offering a lovely view of the confluence of the Kentucky and Dix Rivers, High Bridge Quarry and Lock #7.
Why We’re Proud to Call the Bluegrass Home
Highbridge Springs isn’t just named after this place — we’re made of it. Our spring water rises from the limestone deep inside our High Bridge quarry, on the edge of the Kentucky River Palisades where Jessamine and Mercer counties meet. It’s the same landscape that has drawn people to this corner of Central Kentucky for generations.
Our corner of Kentucky
We’re based in Wilmore, a small college town about three miles west of Nicholasville and an easy 20-minute drive from Lexington. Rolling horse farms, the limestone cliffs of the Palisades, and the historic High Bridge itself — the John Roebling landmark that gives our company its name — are all right in our backyard.
The community we serve
Wilmore is home to Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary, two of the area’s largest institutions and a big part of daily life here. We deliver to their campuses and offices, to Jessamine County Schools — from Wilmore Elementary to West and East Jessamine — and to thousands of Kentucky households and Main Street businesses from Wilmore and Nicholasville out across the Bluegrass. Some of them, like Fitch’s IGA in Wilmore, have carried our water since the early days.
Easy to reach, easy to deliver
US‑68 and KY‑29 (Wilmore Road) tie us to Nicholasville and US‑27, and on into Lexington — so our delivery routes reach most of Central Kentucky within a short drive.
Why people love it here
This is a good place to live, and we don’t take it for granted. High Bridge Park and its Victorian pavilion overlook the confluence of the Kentucky and Dix rivers; the Kentucky River Palisades offer some of the best paddling and hiking in the state; and Camp Nelson National Monument and Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill are both a short drive away.
We’ve been filling bottles for our neighbors here since 1982, and we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Kentucky Proud — and proud of Kentucky.