09/26/2024
This photo as I recall was shared by Nora Sue Kowalski Durham with Joe Rhue and with the Historical Association
who in turn shared it with the Festival committee. Thanks to them for getting it out. Does anyone know if this is her mother Flora Bell Moore Kowalski and Tony Kowalski that lived for years on Water Street? pardon spelling
Mullet 70: New White Oak River bridges are finished
The 1953 dinner event that served as the inspiration for the first Mullet Festival was, in large part, a celebration/appreciation event for the completion of the new White Oak River bridges.
N.C. Highway 24 had been extended east to Swansboro in 1930, according to Jack Dudley, a Swansboro native, in his 2013 pictorial history book “Swansboro: Friendly City by the Sea.”
This extension occurred at about the same time the Swansboro segment of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway was being dredged. Spoil from the dredging was used to create or build up areas of the shorelines of Swansboro and Cedar Point, as well as small islands, including the causeway for the future bridges.
The first White Oak River bridges, which were wooden according to Dudley, were completed in 1934. Prior to their construction, travel to what is now the town of Cedar Point was either by boat or by way of a 23-mile route, apparently unpaved and narrow, through Stella.
An Orangeburg, S.C. construction company owned by F.A. Triplett – a 30-man crew – built the replacement bridges in 1953, according to Dudley. Boney Construction of Norfolk, Virginia, drove the pilings.
The 1953 bridges served Highway 24 traffic for nearly a half-century before being replaced in 2001 by four-lane bridges, which now serve an average of 29,000 vehicles daily, according to Lauren Haviland, communications officer for the N.C. Department of Transportation Divisions 2 and 3.
In honor of the 70th anniversary of the Swansboro Mullet Festival of North Carolina, Deb Pylypiw and the Swansboro Parks and Recreation Department have worked in partnership with Jimmy Williams and the Tideland News, Amelia Dees-Killette and Lee Shuller with the Swansboro Historical Association to feature a series of articles on the history of the festival. This article was featured in the July 10, 2024 edition of the paper.
Photos are from the collection of the Swansboro Historical Association.
Photo - WWII couple in front of the old bridge
