Downtown library focuses on ‘Bridges of Manatee County’

Ninety years ago, Manatee County unveiled its first concrete bridge. It was a mile-long span over the Manatee River, and a Bradenton Herald headline of the era noted that it was the longest bridge of its type in all of Florida.

It was named after a local real estate salesman who, at various times, was a county official and the mayor of Bradenton.

His name was E.P. Green. The original bridge that bore his name was replaced decades ago, but the one that replaced it, also named for him, carries thousands of people a day between Palmetto and Bradenton.

The 90th anniversary of the Green Bridge is part of the impetus for a new exhibit at the Central Library.

The exhibit, which opens Thursday with a free opening reception at 10 a.m., is titled “The Bridges of Manatee County.” It’s really almost as much about ferry lines that transported people over area waterways in the days of yore, but the name was a natural.

“As soon as David said we should do a display about the bridges and ferries, I said, ‘You know what we have to call it, don’t you?’ ” said Ericka Dow, the library’s information services supervisor. “He said, ‘What do you we need to call it?’ and I said, ‘The Bridges of Manatee County.’ ”

The David she’s referring to is David Breakfield, the information services librarian who put the exhibit together.

Besides this year marking the 90th anniversary of the original Green Bridge, he said, the Cortez Bridge is right around 70 years old and the new Fort Hamer Bridge is getting ready to open.

All that, he said, helped persuade him that the various ways people have gotten across the area’s waterways were worth a look.

In documents from the library’s collection of documents from various county historical organizations, “The Bridges of Manatee County” reveals both significant history and trivial tidbits.

The opening of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the mid-1950s, for instance, caused a frenzy of bridge-building in Manatee County, as the county prepared for an increase in automobile traffic. Five county bridges were built around the same time, replacing old wooden bridges, including the bridge on Manatee Avenue that goes from Bradenton to Anna Maria Island. They were all originally toll bridges because the county didn’t have any other way to pay for so many bridges at once.

There was a private toll bridge that today would have been near Ninth Street East. The owner made a lot of money charging people to go over his bridge. There was only one lane, so if two vehicles approached the bridge from opposite directions, one had to pull over. Legend — which Breakfield believes is accurate — holds that two men got in an argument about who should pull over, and one of them killed the other.

Before the Skyway opened, the Bee Line Ferry took passengers from Piney Point, near where Port Manatee is now, to St. Petersburg. The last incarnation of the ferry took people and automobiles but before that it carried people and freight.

Besides telling the story of the county’s bridges, Breakman said, the exhibit aims to give people an insight into the library’s resources that are available to the public.

“One thing we try to do with these exhibits is to let people know what the library has available online,” he said. “We have more than 35,000 historical photos. We have interviews and speeches. Anyone can see them online.”

Details: Through mid-January, Manatee County Central Library, 1301 Barcarrota Ave, Bradenton. Free. 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday, noon-8 p.m. Wednesday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. 941-748-5555, mymanatee.org/home/government/departments/neighborhood-services/library.html

This story was originally published August 16, 2017 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Downtown library focuses on ‘Bridges of Manatee County’."