Forgotten Bridge over New Inlet now almost 90 years old.
The New Inlet area of Pea Island is one of the most dynamic on the Outer Banks, the inlet opening and closing innumerable times since it was first noted in 1657. The pilings of a long-forgotten wooden bridge over the area offer proof of of its history. Kip Tabb writing for the Coastal Review Online tells the story of the bridge and New Inlet.
“By December 2011, Hatteras was again connected to the rest of the world, and six years later, in November 2017, a 2,350-foot-long span later dedicated as the Richard Etheridge Bridge opened to traffic. But the Richard Etheridge Bridge is also considered a temporary bridge. With a projected lifespan of 25 years, NCDOT is already exploring options for its replacement, a 100-year bridge that goes around Pea Island, according to a 2015 legal settlement protecting the refuge.
What remains of the first bridge over New Inlet is almost 90 years old now and is largely forgotten, even by longtime Hatteras Island residents. The old pilings are still there, wooden remnants of that earlier attempt to span one of the most dynamic areas of constantly shifting Pea Island.”
To read the complete Coastal Review Online story, click here.