Canal Bridges

Canal bridges in the Chesapeake City area – circa 1907 – 1949: High Bridge

The photos and commentary for the next few weeks will be about the bridges that spanned the canal in the Chesapeake City area from about 1907 until 1949. This early post card shows the early, narrow canal, with the towpath on the right (North Side). The bridge in the distance is High Bridge, with the Corps of Engineers’ buildings off to the left (note the smoke stack for the large steam pump that brought the water from Back Creek to the locked canal. The bridge spanned Hemphill Street on the right with the Causeway on the left. The Causeway eventually led to Rees’ Wharf, AKA City Dock, which is now where the Miss Clare moors at Pell Gardens.

South Side Ferry View

Ferry View – South Side

Here’s a view of the South Side ferry slip. Note the Inn at the Canal (once Ralph Rees’ residence) at the far left on Bohemia Avenue. Flo Johnson Craig told me a story about riding in a car with her mother and uncle when she was a young girl. Her uncle was driving, and when they came off the ferry and made the sharp left turn towards home, the door flew open and she tumbled out onto the shoulder. She was not injured because she landed on a soft, grassy area.

Ferry Slip Road – South Side

Ferry Slip Road – South Side

 

This is the Ferry Slip Road (circa 1944), the South Side approach to the ferry slip. In the early forties this road was put in especially for the ferry. There’s a story that, when they were working on this very marshy area, a bulldozer disappeared when it was sucked down into the quicksand. I don’t know if the story is true or not . . . but I hope it is! If you dig in the area and find it, let me know. You can see the small shack (at left) where folks could wait for the ferry in bad weather. On weekends in the summer months there was sometimes a long line of cars waiting for the ferry. The line would extend as far south as Randalia Road. Many resourceful kids (me included) would sell cold sodas and vegetables to people waiting in line for the ferry.

Gotham Ferry Close-up

The Gotham Ferry – 2

Here’s a close-up shot of the Gotham ferry. That could even be Capt. Ed in the pilot house at top. The man walking off is deckhand, Paul Rodeli. The woman at right coming off is unidentified (if anyone knows who she is let me know). Note the three passengers on the top deck. I rode this free ferry many, many times just for fun. Many folks in town did also. I’ve heard that it was written up somewhere (maybe in Guinness or Ripley’s) that, for its size, the Gotham provided the shortest ferry ride in the country, less than five minutes. If no trucks were loaded (center lane) the ferry could carry about twenty cars.

Gotham Ferry

The Gotham Ferry

In March of 1943 this large, car ferry was sent down from the New York City area to service the town. It took people, cars, and trucks across and back until the current bridge was opened in the fall of 1949. In the distance you can see the North Side ferry slip. With the strong wind and current it was sometimes very difficult to maneuver. Capt. Ed Sheridan was very skillful as its pilot. I can remember riding it when conditions were bad. It would come into the slip, bang into the pilings, and sort of slosh back and forth until it finally settled into the loading ramp. The man in the white shirt on the bow is Tweedy Ginn.

The Victory Ferry

The Victory Ferry

This is the Victory, a small boat used as a ferry before the Gotham arrived in March of 1943. The captain was Charles Cooling. The craft brought people back and forth across the canal after our lift bridge was destroyed at 11:38 am on July 28^th, 1942. Here it is letting off school children from the North Side so they can attend our South Side school. It’s moored at City Dock, at the same location where Capt. Hazel ties the Miss Clare tour boat. The people (L to R) are Doris Long, Violet Hessey, Herb Edmonds, the Spear girls, and Miss Crowgey, a business teacher at Chesapeake City High School. I think the boy in the foreground is my classmate, Jack Wharton. In the background is the Mindy Building. At that time a Coast Guard unit was stationed in the area across the Basin.

The Wheat Boats

Wheat Boats at City Dock

These are the wheat boats at City Dock, also called Rees’ Wharf. These boats hauled grain through the canal to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and beyond. We’re looking southwest at what is now called Pell Gardens. I remember the large apartment building at center. Grason Stubbs, who used to swim right up next to the Gotham ferry as he tried to race it through the basin, lived in the apartments. At far right is Ralph Rees’ grain warehouse, located where the Canal Creamery is now. It was there when I was a boy. I used to go under the building to change into my bathing suit and come out to swim off City Dock. Hank Banks used to dive off from the top. Water Cooling, prominent Chesapeake City merchant, told me that when a boy he fell from the building, plunged into the water, and got his head stuck in the mud. He said that just his feet were sticking out of the water. His dad pulled him out just in time.