Bridge Over Roanoke To Connect Rich Square and Scotland Neck, July 7, 1921

Bridge the Roanoke. . . Eastern Part of Northampton Soon to Have Bridge Across the River—The Cost

The last step in the preliminaries in building a bridge over the Roanoke River between Rich Square and Scotland Neck were taken last Monday when the Northampton Commissioners ordered bonds to be sold in accordance with agreement with the commissioners for Halifax county entered into year or two ago as a joint meeting for the two boards. It was then decided and agreement entered into, that if the State or Federal government should bear half the expense Halifax would bear five seventh and Northampton two sevenths of the remainder. The engineers reported that the total cost of the bridge and approaches would not cost to exceed $200,000. At the June meeting of the State Highway Commission representatives from Halifax and Northampton appeared before the Commission, Messrs. W.H.S. Burgwyn and E.G. Griffin representing Northampton, and urged that the State include this bridge in one of its projects. The State board saw the necessity of the bridge and decided to build it and the road from Scotland Neck to Rich Square, a distance of 12 miles—five in Halifax and seven in Northampton.

The western half of Northampton has had bridges across the Roanoke for some time, and about a year ago they were made free bridges by the action of Northampton and Halifax jointly, one of the bridges being near Garysburg and the other at Roanoke Rapids. The eastern half of the county to get into Halifax or Martin counties, just across the Roanoke, had to make a long detour by Weldon. With the completion of this bridge and approaches all parts of Northampton and Halifax will share alike in the benefits of the bridges across the Roanoke. The Northern part of the county have enjoyed the advantages of bridges across the Meherrin for ages and now all parts of the county bids fair to soon be on the same footing as to bridge facilities across our rivers.

Edwards Ferry, the site of the new bridge, is an historic place. Here the Confederate ram Albemarle was built in a cornfield by the late Peter Smith of Scotland Neck. Visitors to the State Museum at Raleigh can see a part of the smokestack of the Albemarle riddled by shells at the encounter with the Federal fleet at Plymouth. For many years the ferry has been discontinued. For some time the intercourse and trade between Halifax and Northampton has been confined to Monke Rum and corn liquor, which is made in Halifax along the Roanoke and sold to Northampton booze artists. There is quite a traffic in this stuff now at a point a little higher up, at old Pollock’s Ferry where crowds go on Sundays to load up.

From the Roanoke-Chowan Times, Rich Square, Northampton County, N.C., Thursday, July 7, 1921