New Road, Bridge Will Shorten Drive to Currituck, July 27, 1925

For New Road Cut Mileage to Point Harbor. . . Four Mile Link and Bridge Across North River Would Cut 17 Miles Distance to End of Currituck. . . Job Urges Project. . . And All Speakers on Pleasure Day Join Him in Favoring Quickening Communication with Dare

A bold scheme to throw a bridge across North River and, by the construction of a four-mile link between Old Trap road in Camden and the State highway form the courthouse to Point Harbor in Currituck, to shorten by 35 miles the round-trip distance between practically all points below Coinjock and Elizabeth City, suggested by the Elizabeth City Chamber of Commerce, met hearty and enthusiastic support at the Pleasure Day celebration at Point Harbor Saturday. Immediate steps looking to the mapping out of plans to make provision for financing the project are looked for.

The distance from Elizabeth City to Point Harbor, as the roads run today, is 52 miles and the distance from Point Harbor to Norfolk is but little more than the distance from Point Harbor to Elizabeth City. The proposed bridge and road would cut the distance from Point Harbor to Elizabeth City to 35 miles, without affecting at all the distance between Point Harbor and Norfolk. Equal mileage and a relatively larger proportion of the distance to Elizabeth City would be saved to all points between Point Harbor and Coinjock. For instance, the distance from Elizabeth City to Poplar Branch is 38 miles. The new road would cut this distance to 21 miles, less than an hour’s drive.

This bringing of Elizabeth City into closer and more intimate connection with Lower Currituck, one of its richest trade areas, is naturally what appeals most strongly to the Chamber of Commerce. But hardly less interesting to Currituckians would be the effect of the new highway on the development of a summer resort at Point Harbor; while to residents of Dare County the new road suggests immediately the quickening of communication between that county and Elizabeth City through the establishment of ferries between Point Harbor and points in Dare.

Speaking in favor of the road on Pleasure Day, in addition to Secretary Job, Senator P.H. Williams and J.C.R. Ehringhaus both have the project their unqualified endorsement.

Elizabeth City had a larger share than usual in Pleasure Day exercises at Currituck this year, the Elizabeth City Merchants’ Association providing a handsome silver cup as trophy for the winner in the boat races. This cup this year was won by Clarence Midgett of Manns Harbor, ad will pass into the permanent possession of any contender in the Pleasure Day boat races who wins it for the third time. Second and third, respectively, in the boat race Saturday were Lasidio Twiford of Powells Point and Guy Lennon of Manteo. The local speaker was former Representative Pierce Hampton of Waterlily.

From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., July 27, 1925

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