THE South Banks Channel Bridge at Wrightsville Beach
turns 50 this year and, coinciding with that milestone, the
fixed bridge is undergoing a $3.7 million makeover from
the North Carolina Department of Transportation to repair and
preserve the concrete structure.
The outside southern lane will remain closed to traffic for the
duration of the project, which will continue throughout much of
2022. Estimates have tens of thousands of visitors driving across the
bridges to enjoy Wrightsville Beach during the summer months.
The project includes repair of the girders and approach slab and
replacing bridge joints.
“Anytime you go underneath that bridge by boat and look up you
can see exposed reinforcement steel, the salt water just eats it up,”
says Wrightsville Beach Mayor Pro Tem Hank Miller, a Harbor
Island resident. “You have to make sure the structural integrity
is still there. The repairs will extend the life of the bridge for the
future.”
When the two barrier islands off the Carolina coast became
popular with summer visitors and residents, the only access through
1888 — except, of course, by boat — was via a footbridge stretching
from the Hammocks, now South Harbor Island, over to Wrights-ville,
known then as Ocean View Beach.
In 1889, a trestle bridge constructed by the Wilmington Seacoast
Railroad Co. for its passenger trolley replaced the footbridge.
The open-air trolley carried visitors from downtown Wilmington,
picked up others along the way, to cross Banks Channel, deposit-ing
riders at stops along Lumina Avenue before terminating at the
famed Lumina Pavilion, the three-story, beachfront attraction that
opened in 1905.
For 25 cents, visitors could get a ride on the trolley and admit-tance
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to the Lumina, where entertainment options included
outdoor movies on the beach, and live big band music and dancing
on the top-level dance floor. Many of the famous big bands of
the day, including Vaughn Monroe, Benny Goodman and Guy
Lombardo, played at the Lumina.
A two-lane wooden bridge was built in 1935, the first to bring
automobiles across Banks Channel from the sound side to the
beach. A raised footbridge ran adjacent to the westward lane.
Scott McKinnon, a Wrightsville Beach native and docent at the
Wrightsville Beach Museum of History, remembers those earlier
days fondly. In 1946, he and his family moved to Harbor Island.
McKinnon frequented the two-lane wooden bridge from the
Hammocks to the beach.
“I walked across the walkway on the bridge I can’t tell you how
many times. I was at the beach about every day. We would leave
in the morning, might come home for lunch, might not,” laughs
McKinnon.
He was in the first graduating class of Wrightsville Beach Elemen-tary
School in 1953, and worked summers at the Crest Movie Theatre
in high school. The Lumina continued to draw visitors across the
c. 1935
c. 1945 c. 1950
COURTESY CAPE FEAR MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND SCIENCE COURTESY AL CREASY