Chincoteague Bridges: Goodbye to the Old- Hello to the New

Chincoteague Bridges - Good-Bye to the Old, Hello to the New

Since 1940, the only way for anyone to reach the Virginia island of Chincoteague was by boat, or over the Causeway Bridge which crossed both Black Narrows and the Chincoteague Channel before reaching the Town of Chincoteague. This bridge was built to replace the original Causeway Bridge which opened in 1922, thanks to the tireless work of John B. Whealton, who was awarded $144,000 to complete the job!

When the first Causeway Bridge was opened to much fanfare on November 15th, 1922, more than four thousand people showed up with their automobiles to enjoy the festivities. Before the afternoon ended, rain had begun to fall. The newly opened Causeway unfortunately proved unable to handle both the rain and heavy automobile traffic, and 96 vehicles remained trapped on it.

With typical Chincoteague enterprise, the town's residents used their own boats to ferry the stranded visitors to the safety of local hotels. When the hotels were booked up, they took the strangers into their own homes! The automobiles, over the next few days, were placed on barges and carried to either Franklin City or Wisharts Point for their owners to collect.

John Whealton’s building company spent the next month reinforcing the soil on which the Causeway had been constructed with tons of oyster shells, and the bridge reopened before Christmas. The failure of the bridge was an embarrassment, but the hospitality of the Islanders set a standard which has continued to this day!

Because of that hospitality, however, increasing traffic on the bridge required its replacement in 1940. The 1940 bridge now brings more than 1 million annual visitors to Chincoteague, making the island one of the most popular vacation spots on the entire Atlantic seaboard.

During the 1940s, the bridge was a popular crab-catching spot for the island youngsters, and also served as a diving board into Chincoteague Channel for the bravest among them! In the days before automation, the bridge was manned by a bridge tender around the clock, and the bridge houses which served as dining and bedrooms for the bridge tenders remain to this day.

The bridge tenders had the responsibilities not only for opening the bridge to boat traffic, but have actually maintaining the bridge by giving it regular coats of paint to protect it from the weather and grease to keep it open and closing smoothly. Even during the unforgettable Ash Wednesday storm of 1962, which had Chincoteague Island underwater for days, the bridge tenders manned their posts around the clock!

Time, however, has taken its toll on the Causeway Bridge and in 2008, the Richmond office of the American Bridge Company was given a $68.7 million contract instructed to replacement bridges scheduled for completion in November 2009. The shorter of these bridges, the Marsh Island Connector, will access Marsh Island at the same place as the present Black Narrows Bridge.

The longer bridge will extend from the west side of Black Narrows at VA-175 and continue north and east to the intersection of Main Street and Maddox Boulevard. It's been planned to relieve the enormous traffic congestion which builds up around the Chincoteague Fire Department. Although it’s a two-lane bridge, the lanes are wider than those of the Chincoteague Channel and Black Narrow Bridges, which no longer meet safety standards.

Both the older bridges, after nearly seven decades, will be taken down when the new bridge is opened. For many of the residents of Chincoteague, losing those bridges will be like losing old friends with whom they spent some of the happiest hours of their lives!