Swing Bridge
The Socastee swing bridge was opened 1936. It is 217 feet (66 m) long and 24 feet (7.3 m) feet wide. Originally, the bridge had to be turned by hand. The gatekeeper worked from the house at the top of the bridge. The first operator of the bridge boarded at the Thomas B. Cooper house.
Watch a video of Socastee swing bridge.
From the time of its construction, the Socastee turn bridge was the only means other than ferry to cross the Intra Coastal waterway. Located on Hwy 544, it was to be closed after approval of a new bridge to be built on south of the Socastee bridge. Though the new bridge solved many traffic problems during the tourist season, it did not help the locals and it would have created many problems for Socastee residents that need to access Forestbrook Rd., which is located approximately 0.2 miles on the right off Hwy 544 west of the Socastee turn bridge. Additionally Peach Tree Rd. was located just 0.1 miles to the left. Thus the Socastee turn bridge not only has historic value, but it is still used in daily commuting.
Read more about this topic: Socastee Historic District
Famous quotes containing the words swing and/or bridge:
“wherever we recognize the image of God let us reverence it; though it swing from the gallows.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O, my soul.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)