Story Katie Bohannon
Submitted photos
While in 2022 Little Bridge’s eye-catching arches coincide with a beloved Etowah County restaurant and marina, 82 years ago Gilbert’s Ferry Bridge first served as a gateway between sister cities – sparking a unified narrative its presence nurtures today.
June 17, 1939, signified the official opening of a bridge that would bear many names in its lifetime. The late 1930s referred to the passage as Gilbert’s Ferry Bridge, a structure 864 feet in length supported with a trio of concrete piers and foundations resting on solid rock. Former Southside Mayor Jane Keenum remembered the bridge’s opening in 1939, sharing her experience in a Gadsden Times article celebrating the city’s 40th anniversary. Keenum noted that the bridge was designed to turn to allow boats to pass through.
The bridge earned its original namesake from the surge of transportation in Southside that flourished on the Coosa River in ferries. Though Gilbert’s Ferry was the largest, Lister Ferry boated routes to Rainbow City, and Fowler Ferry traveled from Pilgrims Rest to Whorton Bend – all communities the bridge continues to serve years after its construction.
“These old ferries brought out a lazy feeling around summer, when one would doze off in the early afternoon holding a fishing pole,” said Etowah County historian Danny Crownover, detailing how the operations influenced life on the Coosa. “It was living just like Huckleberry Finn!”
In a 2013 article for The Messenger, Crownover referenced 1963 Assistant County Engineer Paul Ryan’s perception of the Coosa’s ferries, which he coined as the “only means of transportation for people who live near the banks of the river.” The ferries proved vital for Southside and Rainbow City residents, saving them a 15 to 30-mile trip to either Gadsden or Leesburg to cross the Coosa River.
“In many instances, a family lives on one side of the river and works a crop on the other side,” said Ryan. “It would take them a long time to get to their fields if they had to drive it. By using a ferry, they can make the trip in a matter of minutes.”
Former Southside Mayor Eddie Hedgspeth told reporter Lisa Rodgers that his great-grandfather Mark H. Smith ran Gilbert’s Ferry for 30 years, during a time when buggies were charged 50 cents, wagons cost 25 cents, horseback riders were 10 cents and individuals could pay 5 cents to cross the river. When Smith sold the ferry to the county, rides became free.
Smith’s feet waded into the past and the future of river transportation. Though his ferry represented a way of life for Etowah County, he later donated land on both sides of the Coosa to build Gilbert’s Ferry Bridge, introducing a new age on the river for residents.
Fluctuation in water levels following Alabama Power Company’s development of the Coosa River and Etowah County’s blueprints for bridges (to take the place of ferries) phased out the memorable Mark Twain era. Some 20 years following the debut of Gilbert’s Ferry Bridge, an Alabama Power Company construction program erected the H. Neely Henry, Weiss, Logan Martin and Bouldin dams.
Little Bridge Marina owner Craig Inzer, Jr., recalled stories he heard of Etowah County residents who were instrumental in the transformation of the land beneath Gilbert’s Ferry Bridge. When Lawyer Rowan Bone and businessman Jay Troutman learned of the water level’s increase due to the dams during the 1960s, they decided to move their land into the future.
“They dug that farmland up and put dirt where the road is (now),” said Inzer. “They put boat slips in, so when the water came up, they had boat slips (and were prepared).”
Since its inception, Gilbert’s Ferry Bridge played a pivotal role in the relationship between two mirroring municipalities in Etowah County, connecting Rainbow City and Southside. The year 1850 witnessed the small agricultural merger of Pilgrims Rest, Cedar Bend and Green Valley, giving birth to Southside. The “loveliest village on the Coosa,” settles at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, resting along the banks of the river.
Green Valley proved the catalyst for the city’s industry with its grist, blacksmith and sorghum mill, while Brannon Springs and Alabama 77 operated a cotton gin. Like its bridge, the community hopped from name to name until Southside stuck in the 1920s and became incorporated in 1957.
Rainbow City’s rolling green hills were home to one of the earliest settlements in Etowah County with families from Georgia and North and South Carolina migrating to Alabama to put down roots in the early 1800s. According to the city’s history, Hernando DeSoto’s troops first visited the area in 1540. Where the Pensacola Trading Path crossed the Coosa, a bridge now stands. Incorporated in 1950, Rainbow City houses numerous thriving businesses alongside Southside, with its current mayors and administration working hand in hand to foster prosperity for its citizens.
The narrow Gilbert’s Ferry Bridge, now referred to as the Southside Bridge or lovingly called Little Bridge, once welcomed traffic to and from Southside. Its cramped two-lane space proved too constricting for vehicles, with photographs highlighting how local school buses barely scraped past one another.
During the late 1970s, Southside secured a $7-million bond project and constructed a new bridge to serve as the southbound lane between cities. This bridge is now a two-lane entrance and exit to the city.
Today, Little Bridge remains solely a northbound lane on Alabama 77 with residents driving over generations of history – traveling to and from prominent communities, illustrating the unified spirit of Etowah County each time they pass underneath its arches.
Editor’s Note: Gadsden Public Library staff Craig Scott, Kevin Graves and Debbie Walker contributed to this article, along with Craig Inzer, Jr., and Danny Crownover, City of Rainbow City and the City of Southside.
