Victory Bridge

Victory Bridge is a monument to early 20th century engineering. Completed in 1922 at a cost of roughly $1 million, the bridge was built by Masters and Mullen Construction Company of Cleveland, Ohio., Its name honors the Allied victory in World War I, then believed to be a "war that would end all wars.", Jackson and Gadsden Counties paid for the bridge, with help from the Federal government. The main section required 1,200,000 pounds of steel and 12,000 cubic yards of concrete. Workers built cofferdams in the river to allow access to dry bottom for the construction of the piers and arches., The seven arch spans were each 110-feet long. There was also a bascule lift span or drawbridge of 100-feet that opened to allow paddlewheel riverboats to pass beneath. The Converse Bridge Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee, fabricated the lift or drawbridge. Pensacola Shipbuilding Company put it in place., The classic structure was designed by James Austin Mortland, a bridge engineer with the Florida State Roads Department (today’s FDOT). The main structure is 2,100 feet long, while an approach structure across the Pope Lake Swamp west of the river. Prisoners - both men and women - cleared the path for the approach, working six days per week in the deep swamp with cross-cut saws an axes. The main span remained in use until the 1950s, when the state built today’s US 90 bridge., An important crossing. , Victory bridge replaced licensed ferries that ran at this site for 100 years after the United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821. Prior to that time, travelers used dugout canoes to cross the Apalachicola River. The graceful arches of the historic structure parallel the mid 20th century US 90 bridge. , The Old Spanish Trail. , Victory bridge was an important link on America’s first coast to coast tourist route. Called the Old Spanish Trail National Highway, it commemorated earlier colonial roads and linked San Francisco. California to Jacksonville, Florida. , The Old meets the New. , The paddlewheel steamer John W Callahan, Jr. passes through the lift span of the bridge on dedication day in 1922. The completion of modern highways spelled the end for the beautiful old "floating palaces".