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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.
2 comments:
I well remember riding across the old bay bridge with our Dad behind the wheel of our 1935 Huppmobile, stopping to pay the 25 cent toll. It was a scary crossing for me, as I, then seven or eight years old, was afraid of the water, and the bridge deck was open metal grating which meant you could look down right into the water beneath. I preferred to look across the bay to see if a New York Central freight train was crossing the RR bridge, or to see us approach the vicinity of the Medusa cement plant located on the east shore of the bay.
I remember well traveling over the Bay Bridge to go to East Harbor State Park beach or Marblehead for a drive. My brother and I were afraid of the bridge because of the way it opened, I remember hearing someone had driven right off into the water, so as a child the idea of that stuck with us and it was always exciting that we were going to the beach but terrifying while we crossed the bridge. It probably was just a rumor but it was real to us. Miss it now though!
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