(Look Back with Bob Enoch - Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection)

A correspondent’s short trip down the Ohio River, in July of 1889, from Parkersburg to New England [Wood County] concludes:

We landed at New England, and was most hospitably entertained by Mr. Myron Pease, and his estimable wife with true New England hospitality. Sunday morning I attended service at the Baptist church at that place and listened to a most excellent sermon by the pastor, Rev. B.M. Stout. This church has just repaired their building throughout, having papered the walls and repainted the seats and wood-work. It now presents a neat appearance, and is free from debt.

I took the afternoon train for Parkersburg and arrived here safe and well pleased with my outing. While in Harris district I took pains to inquire as to what the people thought of the proposed location of the Kanawha bridge. Everyone that I conversed with was well pleased with the selection of the site.

The Parkersburg Daily State Journal,

July 9, 1889

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More About the Bridge Question – Successfully bridging the Little Kanawha River at Parkersburg proved difficult.

In 1846, the Little Kanawha Bridge Company was formed. This “for profit group,” with Peter G. VanWinkle as its president, was authorized to build a toll bridge, fulfilling the need of the citizens of southern Wood County for access to Parkersburg. The two-lane, covered bridge, at the foot of Market street, was completed in November of 1848. Initial tolls were: Person on foot, 3 cents each; person on horseback with one horse, 6 cents; vehicles of all descriptions drawn by one animal, 15 cents; led or driven horses, 3 cents each; neat cattle, 1 ½ cents; sheep and hogs, 1 cent.

PEOPLE ARE UNHAPPY! – Nearly twenty years later, the summer of 1865, an item in the Parkersburg Weekly Times describes the toll bridge situation:

“Could our citizens, in order to escape the squeezing of the bridge shareholders, not devise any means to make the passage over that old rotten monopoly less luxurious? They charge every foot passenger five cents for crossing, and the same amount for recrossing, making ten cents a trip. This is too exorbitant, and more so, when we hear of the amounts which they charge teams with.

“Should we not move and build an independent free bridge? Verily it would pay the whole country living on the other side of that old bridge, and who are compelled to come to our city, and cannot avoid the smarting taxation they are subjected to. Let’s move at once and have a new bridge built; let’s break down that odious old monopoly.”

Still, the old bridge was used until 1875. In August of that year, a flood forced changes – the bridge was washed away! An August 21, 1875 item in the Parkersburg Sentinel shares that the Parkersburg bridge was supposedly taken as far as Ashland, Kentucky!

The Little Kanawha Bridge Company quickly (perhaps to ensure their continued “monopoly,”) began plans to build a wood and iron bridge at the same location. Work on the new bridge progressed well until November, when the new structure, nearly complete, was again washed away!

The iron and steel bridge was rebuilt. But the cries of exuberant tolls continued. In March of 1881, the County Commissioners agreed to buy and the Bridge Company agreed to sell the Market Street bridge. The price was $25,000. The transaction can be found in the records of Wood County, Deed Book 43 at page 169.

An interesting item concerning the bridge purchase appeared in the March 31, 1881 issue of the Parkersburg State Journal: “Now that the citizens of this county have purchased the Kanawha bridge, to firmly cement the two sections [of the county], and to avoid payment of toll, England and France propose to unite themselves by a sub-marine railway tunnel under the Strait of Dover, 30 miles long. Thus is an American enterprise emulated abroad.”

Gone Again! In July of 1888 high waters again lifted the bridge from its foundations. This time it beached at the head of Blennerhassett Island. It Was Not Rebuilt.

The question of where to build a new bridge again evoked controversy for the people of Wood County. In July of 1889 the Wood County Commissioners decided the new bridge would be built at the foot of Juliana Street. The new bridge was opened traffic in April of 1892. It was closed to vehicular traffic in 1961.

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.