Bridges: Connecting the Outer Banks
Outlook 2020 • 5
THERESA SCHNEIDER PHOTO
The William B. Umstead Bridge connects the north end of Roanoke Island to the Dare County mainland.
by Mary Helen Goodloe-Murphy mhgm@thecoastlandtimes.com For the longest time, Outer Banks residents traveled by small boat across inland waters. But in 1927, Dare County leaders started the long campaign to build bridges connecting Dare County to its far-flung boundaries, to North Carolina and to the world. That year, the county’s Board of Commissioners passed a resolution to build a causeway connecting Roanoke Island with Nags Head. To finance the project, the board floated a bond issue and built the bridge. Washington Franklin Baum, a county commissioner from Wanchese, pushed for that new connecting bridge. In 1928, the newly built draw bridge was opened.
“It took local initiative and daring and private investment to begin the long and costly process of making the Outer Banks accessible at last, but today there are five beautiful modern bridges in or connecting with Dare County . . .” David Stick, “Dare County: A History.” 1970.
The toll was a quarter. In 1962, a new bridge was officially dedicated to “Wash” Baum. In 1994, a replacement bridge was dedicated and again Washington F. Baum was remembered. The new bridge is 82 feet high, eliminating the need for a draw. The Wright Memorial Bridge, Dare County Bridge No. 16, opened Sept. 27, 1930. Local businessmen built this wooden bridge that opened up northern Dare County to Beating the toll visitors. The bridge con“In 1927, each person used to be charged a toll of 25 cents to nected mainland Currituck cross the bridge over Roanoke Sound. That was when the bridge County to Kitty Hawk. was first built. In order to beat the toll some of us would hide in Some 36 years later, the rumble seat of my Model-T. the wooden bridge was “One time Rondal Lewark and I were shut up in there, and replaced. In 1997, a parallel the others could not open the seat when we arrived on the other side of the bridge. We had to ride all the way to Kitty Hawk span, Dare County Bridge before they could get us out. No. 35, was completed. “We were headed to the Soundside Pavilion where Capt. The Wright Memorial Dan Hayman ran a dance hall. I thought that we would smother Bridge carries NC 158 before we got there.” “Memories of Manteo and Roanoke Island, N.C. as told by Cora Mae Basnight,” by Susanne Tate. 1988
across Currituck Sound. In 1915, the State Highway Commission, the precursor to today’s Department of Transportation, was created. It wasn’t until after the Depression and World War II that the state agency started paying much attention northeast North Carolina. The State Highway Commission purchased both toll bridges and made those bridges free. In 1955, the commission started Dare County Bridge No. 9. The connection between Manns Harbor on the Dare County mainland and the north end of Roanoke Island was completed in 1956. Called the William B. Umstead Memorial Bridge, this structure brought U.S. 64 across the Croatan Sound. The Umstead bridge was the biggest state project of the 1950s, reports NCDOT. William Bradley Umstead, May 13,
