Bridges over Sandusky Bay

There has been a railroad bridge over Sandusky Bay, connecting Bay Bridge in Margaretta Township, Erie County to Danbury Township, Ottawa County since 1854.  You can see pictured  above a representation of the bridge on the left side of an 1898 birds-eye map of the Sandusky area, published by the Alvord- Peters Company. 

Samuel Catherman received the contract for the construction of this bridge, and employed three hundred men during this project. The May 30, 1854 issue of the Sandusky Daily Commercial Register reported that once the railroad bridge was completed across Sandusky Bay, there would be continuous rail service from Sandusky to Chicago, a total of 271 miles. According to Dean K. Fick’s book The Lakeside and Marblehead Railroad, the bridge was commissioned by the Port Clinton Railroad and the Junction Railroad in 1854, but it was abandoned in 1858. It was reopened in 1872 by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. Later owners of this bridge were: the New York Central Railroad, Penn Central Railroad and Conrail, and most recently the Norfolk & Southern Railway. 

In the 1850s, Sardis Birchard, uncle of Rutherford B. Hayes, tried to stop the development of a railroad bridge across Sandusky Bay, because he feared the bridge would interfere with ship traffic. Ultimately, it was impossible to stop development of the railroad bridge across the bay.  

Trains going across Sandusky Bay carried mail for the United States Post Office. These photographs of “fast mail” trains, from the early twentieth century, show the trains traveling on the railroad bridge across Sandusky Bay.

The bridge over the bay had a lift mechanism, to allow for the passage of boats.

In 1929, the opening of the Sandusky Bay Bridge allowed for automobile traffic across the Sandusky Bay.

In the 1960s, the four lane Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge, a part of State Route 2, was constructed parallel to the Sandusky Bay Bridge.

The portion of State Route 2 commencing at the approach of the Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge and extending through Erie County is known as the Jackie Mayer Miss America Highway. Jackie Mayer is a former Sandusky resident who served as Miss America in 1963. Both the Sandusky Bay Bridge and the Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge were in use from 1965 until the mid-1980s when the State of Ohio removed the steel center of the old bridge because of the high cost of maintenance. Traveling over Sandusky Bay has been a key concern of local residents and officials for well over one hundred years. Visit the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center to learn more about the history of Sandusky and Erie County.

Plaza Theatre Advertisement from 1929

This advertisement appeared in the February 1, 1929 issue of the Sandusky Star Journal, on the day before the old Sandusky Bay Bridge was dedicated.

The ad pointed out that with the opening of the bridge across Sandusky Bay, Ottawa County residents could now easily travel to the Plaza Theater on Jackson Street in Sandusky, Ohio. The manager of the Plaza was A.C. Himmelein, the nephew of John A. Himmelein, who was also connected with the entertainment industry. Tickets to the Plaza ranged in price from ten cents for children to forty cents for adults on Sunday and holidays. According to the advertisement, Sandusky’s finest “photo-plays” were shown at the Plaza, sometimes even appearing in Sandusky before they were shown in Cleveland or Toledo. The Plaza Theater opened in 1914 as the Ivonhoe, and was located in the 200 block of Jackson Street, next to what is now the Sandusky Register building. The theater was razed in the 1960s. 

Here is a picture of the Plaza Theatre when the Walt Disney movie Snow White played there in the late 1930s:

Tolls on the Sandusky Bay Bridge

When the old Sandusky Bay Bridge opened on February 2, 1929, people from both Erie and Ottawa Counties were delighted to have direct automobile access across Sandusky Bay. The thousands of tourists to the Lake Erie Islands region were also very glad to have a quick and easy way to travel across the bay to get to their favorite beach or fishing spot. The bridge was originally operated by the Sandusky Bay Bridge Company, which charged each vehicle fifty cents to cross the bridge. On May 1, 1936, the State Bridge Commission of Ohio took over operation, and immediately  reduced the toll from fifty cents to twenty-five cents. A toll collector was stationed near the drawbridge.

In the close up below, you can clearly read the sign which states the fee for autos is twenty five cents.

On Friday, August 30, 1946, Governor Frank J. Lausche cut the tape across the bridge span near the toll gate, and the Sandusky Bay Bridge became toll free. The first car to head west on the bridge after the ribbon cutting was Howard Higgins of Rochester, New York. The driver of the car traveling east on the bridge was Jay Johnson from Los Angeles, California. You can read more about the Sandusky Bay Bridge becoming toll-free in the August 31, 1946 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News, now on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. 

The Sandusky Bay Bridge ceased operations in the mid-1980s. Today drivers cross the Sandusky via the Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge.

The Lake Shore Route Association

Pictured above is a picture the Official Information Car of the Lake Shore Route Association, taken in the 1930s.  The Lake Shore Route Association promoted the Lake Shore Route as the shortest, safest, most scenic automobile route between Buffalo, New York and Chicago, Illinois. The opening of the old Sandusky Bay Bridge on February 2, 1929 allowed automobiles to travel in a direct route from Erie County to Ottawa County across Sandusky Bay. The Sandusky Bay Bridge was a key component of the Lake Shore Route in the 1930s.

 In June of 1933, three members of the Lake Shore Association took an automobile tour along the Lake Shore Route, en route to the World’s Fair in Chicago. Along the way, members distributed maps and brochures promoting the Sandusky Bay Bridge, Cedar Point, Lakeside, and other points of interest in Erie and Ottawa Counties. In 1939 the Lake Shore Route Association compiled a booklet which promoted the Lake Erie area. Highlighted were beaches, Camp Perry, the Blue Hole, Cedar Point, campsites, and areas for fishing and boating.

            

 According to an article which appeared in the January 29, 1931 issue of the Sandusky Register, a very early Lake Shore Route was built in 1808 from Cleveland to Sandusky. Geauga County Commissioners were instrumental in creating the plan for a road to extend from the west bank of the Cuyahoga River to the western most lands of the Firelands. Seven hundred dollars were appropriated for digging and the building of bridges over brooks and creeks. The contractor requested extra funds for the construction of a log bridge to be built over Old Woman’s Creek. By the 1940s, the Lake Erie Islands region was promoted as Vacationland. Today Lake Erie’s Shores and Islands is instrumental in providing information about the many attractions and natural features of Erie and Ottawa Counties.