Old Ferry Landing - Bridge City, TX
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This is the old ferry landing in Bridge City to cross the Neches River. It was replaced with the Rainbow Bridge in 1936 (designed to never interfere with river traffic to Beaumont with a clearance of 177 feet - height of the US Navy's USS Patoka - though it never did pass here). That height was used by Bethlehem Steel in Beaumont to build many offshore drilling rigs. The bridge is a narrow, two-lane truss bridge with a steep approach and decent. For much of my 32 year career at DuPont - Orange, I crossed this bridge twice a day - often with delays due to terrible wrecks. The Veterans Memorial Bridge, a cable-stayed 143 foot high bridge, was opened in 1990 and the Rainbow Bridge was refurbished. Both bridges are now in full service (since 1997) with traffic to Bridge City crossing the Veterans and traffic to Port Arthur crossing the Rainbow.
Fun fact (according to Wiki, anyway): Bridge City was originally named Prairie View and changed its name to Bridge City in 1938 with the construction of the Rainbow Bridge.
You see the Veterans Memorial Bridge with its more gentle ramps in front of the Rainbow Bridge in this photo. The Rainbow Bridge trusses can be seen just behind the Veterans. The power transmission towers are also visible. The two large columns to the left of the bridges are part of the Total Refinery.
Thanks,
Doug White
I enjoyed reading the pictures and history Doug and thought I'd share a bit of my own history with the Veteran's Memorial Bridge!
ReplyDeleteI think it was 1991 when the Veteran's memorial bridge had its "grand opening" (I've got a baseball hat around here somewhere commemorating the event). I was a policeman at the time and volunteered to push a veteran in a wheelchair all the way to the top of the bridge for the opening ceremonies (the trip down was more difficult than the trip up)!
I met Charlie Wilson (Goodtime Charlie) who came to speak at the event and also his Congressional opponent at the time (Donna Peterson). Miss Peterson had recently been in the limelight for castrating a bull on the campaign trail, presumably to show the world Goodtime Charlie wasn't the only one with a flamboyant character.
Enjoyable time!
Tommy
Thanks, Doug, for the post. As a child, my family crabbed at the old ferry landing on the Port Arthur side. My brother even launched a boat so we could ski, usually headed to Stutes Island. My brother, Gary, lived in Orange and crossed the bridges twice a day to work in Port Arthur and Groves. . Two separate times, he rescued ladies who were threatening to jump off the bridges. The one, on the Veterans, her dress keep blowing up, and she reached down to smooth it, he saw his chance and reached over the railing and grabbed her. He received a commendation from the city for saving her life. Several times a year, I do
Deletebird counts on Bailey’s fish camp road. A few years ago, on the Orange County Christmas Bird Count, we had 11 Brown Boobies. I have never made the connection that those piling were remnants of the ferry. In the 50’s-60’s there were many houses/camps in that area.
Great stories!
DeleteAs I recall hearing, when they opened the Rainbow Bridge, they paid a professional diver to jump off. This was during the Great Depression and I believe they offered $500, which was quite a sum at the time.
ReplyDeleteThe story goes that the diver jumped off, made an excellent entry and remained under water for well over a minute or two causing a lot of concern. He finally surfaced, swam to the shore, collected his money and got in a vehicle and drove away never to be seen or heard from again.
Hahaha! Hadn't heard that one!
DeletePrevious comment was by Ryan Baskin
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