Columbus Bound
Chattahoochee River covered bridge in Eufaula, Alabama. Photograph. Alabama Department of Archives and History, ca. 1920. An example of what Godwin and King's first bridge may have looked like (no photographs of the original are known to exist).
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"For thirty-three years the bridge was the most important enterprise of the city of Columbus." - Lupold, John S. and French,Jr., Thomas L. Bridging Deep South Rivers, 2004. |
In February or March 1832, John Godwin won the bid to build the first bridge connecting Columbus, Georgia to Alabama. This was a very important bridge because it allowed for commerce, especially the cotton trade, to be happen between the states on a large scale. It also launched Horace King's career. "By May 1832 Godwin and King - technically as master and slave but more realistically as fellow builders - arrived on the banks of the Chattahoochee and began erecting the first of many bridges in the area and the first Town lattice truss to join Georgia and Alabama...No other African Americans possessed the skills or degree of responsibility given to Horace by Godwin only two years after he acquired him...Because of the history that unfolded around and through this bridge and because it was the very first bridge built by King and Godwin in the Chattahoochee Valley, it, more than any other, is identified with Horace King today" (Lupold, John S. and French, Jr., Thomas L. Bridging Deep South Rivers, 2004). |
Parker Bennett in front of the original brick abutment of the 1833 Dillingham Street bridge that Godwin and King built across the Chattahoochee.
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"Back in Horace King's time, bridges were vital to be able to cross rivers for commerce and trade. Cities couldn't have formed without the bridges and Horace King made it possible" (Lenard, Tom. Personal Interview. 17 January 2014). "Wooden, covered bridges were essential for southern towns to attract the cotton trade. A well-built bridge could bring in tremendous income. Its failure...could bring ruin. Such was the world that Godwin and King entered when they left Cheraw to accept a contract to build the Columbus bridge in 1832" (Lupold, John S. and French, Jr., Thomas L. Bridging Deep South Rivers, 2004). Left: Dillingham Street Bridge. Photograph, ca. 1900, Alabama Department of Archives and History. |
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