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The former site of Blossom’s Ferry is located near where Interstate 40 crosses the
Northeast Cape Fear River. Below: Artist’s conception of the underwater site.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
The ferry changed
hands eight times
between Marshall’s
time in 1733 to
Blossom’s in 1882.
In 1755, the ferry
was gifted to Captain
Benjamin Heron by
his father-in-law,
John Howe. Heron
was responsible for
the construction of a
drawbridge decreed
by the colonial
assembly in 1766.
A British traveler,
Miss Janet Schaw,
described Heron’s
drawbridge in her
“Journal of a Lady of Quality” in
1776. Following descriptions of
the “great road” that connected
Wilmington to the plantations of the
Northeast Cape Fear River, she wrote
that Captain Heron’s bridge, “…tho’
built of timber is a truly noble one,
broader than that over the Tay at
Perth. It opens at the middle to both
sides and rises by pullies, so as to
suffer Ships to pass under it.”
British soldiers destroyed Heron’s
bridge shortly after the occupation
of Wilmington by Lord Cornwallis