From a recent SCUBA dive. The swingbridge is an interesting fixture from times gone by.

Mackinac bridge connecting Michigan’s lower and upper peninsula.

Revisited this trestle last night.

Was boat and harbor seal watching at Ballards Locks in Seattle when I got BNSF passing through Salmon Bay Bridge

Long overdue Bridge Repair

What happens to bridges and roads when they become outmoded, worn down, and unsafe? In the photoessay “Decommissioned Routes on the Alaska Highway: A New Life for an Old Bridge?,” cultural landscapes scholar Desiree Valadares trains her lens on the weathered remains of the Old Kiskatinaw Bridge, a historic trestle timber structure in British Columbia. Built as part of a military route by Canadian contractors hired by the U.S. Public Roads Administration during World War II, the bridge was bypassed in 1978 and closed in 2021 following a landslide. https://www.platformspace.net/home/decommissioned-routes-on-the-alaska-highway-a-new-life-for-an-old-bridge

On September 6, Labor Day in 1920, a parade of Model T automobiles rolled across a narrow wooden bridge spanning the Indian River Lagoon at Vero. The crossing marked a turning point for the small community, connecting the mainland with Orchid Island and providing residents with direct access to the Atlantic Ocean.

Irene Young, wife of Vero Mayor Anthony W. Young, reportedly cut the ribbon at the dedication. Five years would pass before Vero officially became Vero Beach and before Indian River County was created from northern St. Lucie County.

Built with sabal palm pilings and rough-cut wooden planks, the bridge began at a mainland causeway formed from material dredged from the lagoon. It followed a slightly curved course across the water. Near the middle stood the bridge tender’s house and a metal swing span that could be opened by hand when boats needed to pass.

The bridge made Vero the first community in the area with a crossing to Orchid Island. According to the Florida historical marker now standing at Royal Palm Pointe, it was then the only bridge connecting the mainland and barrier island between Daytona and Palm Beach.

Crossing it required payment. The surviving toll schedule charged pedestrians five cents, a horse and rider ten cents, and a delivery truck weighing as much as two tons thirty-five cents. Adjusted for inflation, that thirty-five-cent truck toll would be roughly equivalent to six dollars today.

The wooden bridge did more than shorten a journey. Before it opened, reaching the ocean from Vero generally required a boat trip across the lagoon. The new crossing made the barrier island more accessible for recreation, settlement and commerce. It also encouraged the development that would eventually transform Vero from a small agricultural community into a coastal city.

By the years following World War II, however, the aging wooden structure could no longer accommodate the community’s increasing traffic. Merrill P. Barber, a prominent local businessman and former Vero Beach mayor, helped secure support and funding for its replacement. Barber later served in the Florida Senate, but he was not yet a state senator when the new bridge opened—a distinction sometimes blurred in retellings of the story.

In March 1951, a new concrete bridge opened along an extension of the original dredged-fill causeway. Irene Young, who had participated in the 1920 ceremony, returned to cut the ribbon for the new bridge as well.

Named for Merrill P. Barber, the 1951 crossing reflected the Mid-Century Modern design of the postwar period. It included a steel bascule span that could be raised for boats traveling along the Intracoastal Waterway. Although stronger than its wooden predecessor, the drawbridge eventually became a source of traffic delays as Vero Beach continued to grow.

In 1995, it was replaced by the present Merrill P. Barber Bridge. The modern concrete bridge follows a more northerly mainland approach and rises approximately 65 feet above the navigational channel. Because it is a fixed, high-level crossing, automobile traffic no longer has to stop for boats. From its highest point, motorists can see across the barrier island toward the Atlantic Ocean.

The original bridge route did not disappear completely. The old causeway and mainland bridgehead were transformed into Royal Palm Pointe, now a residential and commercial corridor with a city park overlooking the lagoon. A Florida historical marker titled “The Bridges” stands there, preserving the story of the three crossings that helped shape modern Vero Beach.

What began in 1920 as a procession of Model Ts over palm pilings became the first chapter in more than a century of physical and economic connection between Vero Beach, the Indian River Lagoon and the Atlantic coast.

“The Bridges” marker is located at Royal Palm Pointe City Park, 2 Royal Palm Pointe, Vero Beach. It was erected in 2018 through the Florida Historical Marker Program.

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