Bridge To Palm Beach Collapsed In 1921
Q: Is it true one of the bridges from West Palm Beach to Palm Beach collapsed once?
A: It was the Royal Park bridge, the “middle bridge” of the three. It happened on Dec. 29, 1921. Here’s the tale, according to Judge James R. Knott’s “Brown Wrapper” historical series in The Palm Beach Post:
A new masonry structure was being built to replace the old wooden bridge, which had stood for about nine years. It was two days from being dedicated. Sara Dean, wife of S. Bobo Dean, publisher of The Palm Beach Daily News (“The Shiny Sheet”) rode her bicycle across at 10 a.m. She apparently was the only resident ever to use the doomed bridge.
About 2 p.m., as a steamroller was packing the surface, the head of construction heard a cracking noise and ordered the machine off. He and an assistant raced onto a barge to investigate from the water line, but as soon as they did, a pier on the Palm Beach side gave way and the two spans crashed down, throwing workmen on the spans and the boat into the water.
Everyone was rescued, but later another span and another pier fell in. The bridge that inspectors had passed two days earlier was now a jumble of concrete chunks and steel rods. A civic uproar followed, with people calling for penalties for those responsible.
A temporary wooden structure was built, and it would be nearly two years before the bridge finally opened on Aug. 11, 1924. A suit against the construction company ended in a settlement. In 1958-59, the bridge was renovated, widened to four lanes and switched from a swing opening to a lift span. A $50 million renovation now under way is scheduled to be completed this year.
Tags: bridges, Palm Beach
