Did you know today marks the 93rd anniversary of the opening of the old Eggner’s Ferry Bridge? The bridge, which was replaced in 2016, opened for traffic on this day in 1932. The bridge essentially replaced Eggner’s Ferry, which for decades carried vehicles, wagons, horses, and people across the Tennessee River – now Kentucky Lake.
More about the old bridge: https://www.fourriversexplorer.com/eggners-ferry-bridge/
Here is some more info:
Prior to the 1920s highway bridges crossing large rivers were almost non-existent in rural America. The reason for this is most highways, as we know them, simply didn’t exist. And the reason for that is not many people in rural America had cars.
If you wanted to travel a couple hundred miles or more, you did so by train. But if your town didn’t have a train, chances are you had to traverse down a poorly-maintained dirt road on a horse and buggy to get to a station.
Case in point, if you wanted to travel from Benton to Cadiz back in the day, rail wasn’t an option. Sure, you could hop on the NC&StL at the station in Benton and go to Paducah or Murray, but that’s the wrong way. So you’d take your horse and head to Aurora.
But wait… there’s the massive Tennessee River you have to cross. It’s too deep to ford and the current is too strong. If you want to get to Cadiz you’ve got to cross the river. So it’s time to find a ferry. Eggners Ferry, to be exact.
Ferries were very common prior to modern-day bridges. They provided a vital service connecting stagecoach routes and communities otherwise separated by a massive river. Several of them operated up and down the Tennessee River as well as the Cumberland River.
Eggners Ferry was one of those operations. It was located near Aurora and provided a way of crossing the river so you could carry on to Golden Pond, Canton, and then eventually Cadiz.