THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411100571
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The soaring steel and concrete bridge that today links the east end of downtown Norfolk with the south side of the Elizabeth River was preceeded by two earlier spans.
The first - a primitive wooden structure equipped with a 24-foot draw to enable ships to pass into the eastern branch of the river - was built by private subscription sometime during the late 18th or early 19th century. Connecting East Main Street in Norfolk with a country road that later became South Main Street in Berkley, the bridge was largely used by farmers bringing produce or livestock to Norfolk.
By 1809, when Mrs. Anne Ritson, the wife of a Norfolk-based British merchant, published a sprightly poetical description of Norfolk, the bridge had become a popular escape hatch for ardent Norfolk couples eloping to North Carolina for hasty marriages. The span, plainly visible in an 1855 lithograph of Norfolk by artist E. Sachse, was in use until the late 19th century when it was destroyed as a result of a feud between its owners and a railroad company, the latter claiming it was an obstruction to increasingly heavy river traffic.
Fortunately, in 1918, when the second Berkley Bridge was dedicated, a Virginian-Pilot reporter interviewed a man named Peter Plunkett, a former employee on the ancient structure. Plunkett recalled that during the 1870s, as draw tender, he was paid $1.25 a week and board with the bridge tender. Every cold morning, before beginning work, he was also given a dram of apple brandy to keep out the cold.
Plunkett had this to say about the destruction of Norfolk's first Elizabeth River bridge: ``A railroad was said to have offered the bridge firm $30,000 for the span and its charter.'' When this was refused, Plunkett remembered: ``One dark night the railroad folks sent out a gang of section hands with crowbars, and what they did to that old bridge was a plenty.''
The second Berkley Bridge, a much more sophisticated steel structure, was begun in November 1916 and not completed until May 1918, because materials were hard to obtain during World War I. Also built by private speculators, the structure was acquired by the city of Norfolk in 1946, and was demolished in 1952.
The bridge opened during the winter of the big freeze of 1917-18, at which time Berkley youngsters gleefully used the southside span as a sledding slope. Meanwhile, another Berkley character, a raffish harridan familiarly known as Tug Boat Jenny, had other ideas.
One day when a gang of boys was loitering on the Berkley side of the span, Jenny joined them and vowed to be the first person who would cross the bridge. The draw was then nearly completed and had been lowered to a point where only about four feet separated its two parts. Below, the icebound river glittered menacingly in the winter sunlight.
Before the boys could protest, Jenny clambered up the Berkley side of the draw. She teetered crazily for a few moments on her airy perch, yelled ``Whoopee!'' and leaped to the other side.
Clinging perilously to the railing with one hand, she cupped her other hand to her mouth and called out ``I made it, by God! Meet me at the Chestnut Street ferry!''
When she stepped off the boat, the boys greeted her with a rousing cheer. Bumming a cigarette from a startled deck hand, Jenny spouted a stirring account of her escapade to everyone within earshot.
After that, the boys gave her a triumphal homecoming parade to her houseboat that was anchored on the edge of the marsh off Muskrat Row.
Interestingly, the site is now the exact spot where the present Berkley Bridge touches Southside Norfolk. by CNB