2018-186B - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Indian River County Exhibit # The Wabasso BriaigeTo l®is.neg By. Ruth Slanbrklge counrylllstorian Since Disney's Vero Beach':Resort opened in 1995. if has brought guests from around theworld who crossover theWabasso bticige for their first glimpse at'the ocean. Few know the historical link that.Disiney has to Wa- bassa.that dates -back to -the years jusa before'Disney.World was completed. The.. connection goes all the way back -to the 1880's. In those. days a boating trip down.the-Indian River Lagoon was a dangerous and challeng- ing. -adventure. Towns and people were- few and far. between. One of the landmarks alongthe:Iridian Riverseen on the 11387 Coastal map.was an -Ars Indian midden, call Ttivo Dollar Bluff. The Bluff stood tall;along the western shoreline and remnants still exist at.the approach to the Wabasso Bridge. The bridge really began as a dock built to provide the. families of Cap- tain Frank Forster and Stephen Michael -a place to tie up the boats when they crossed the Indian River Narrows to the mainland. In the late 1880's, veryfew people,lived in the area of :Orchid or along the Orchid -Narrow Road (now the south -end of Jungle Trail). When the Florida East Coast Railway came in the -early 1890s the Wa- basso Dock became the only means for deliveryof citrus, pineapples, and winter vegetables from Orchid Island, to the railroad and to.matket. Land sales on Orchid Island were not only promoted by Captain Forster from his homestead at Orchid, but lie had an.agreement with.Henry Flagler to furnish citrus and other fresh vegetables to theFlaglerhotelsbywayof this "new" rail line. By 1925 and through the "roaring 20's" the development on Orchid Is- land across.from Wabasso grew until it.was obvious abridge was needed. In 1928, a narrow wooden bridge was in-place. The river channel located on the Orchid side of the River needed a"swing" bridge and a bridgetender. This "swing" opened for the boats plying. the Intracoastal Waterway.'The bridgetender's house sat in the middle of the River on the. north side of this very narrow two-lane bridge. A.turnwheel' was used. to open tharriet- al swing bridge and was.located on the span between the house and the shoreline of Orchid Island. In the late 1960's, as.plans were being made tobuild a "modern" cause- way and a newhigh-rise "arch'' bridge over the -river channel, a fire'broke out and destroyed a large section of the: old Wabasso bridge. For several months the only.way to. cross the river was via a "pontoon" bridge from the World War II era as the transportation corridor. The floating bridgcwas utilized the new Wabasso Bridge'(CR 510) was completed. It was about that time that Florida's Magic Kingdom was constructing a s .mall railroad to encircle the theme park. They needed a drawbridge over a canal from the lagoon to the_boatyard where the ferries were serviced. They heard about the Florida Department of Transportation replacing. an old swing bridge inWabasso and decided to check it out. After careful in- spection, the Disneyengineers decided they could salvage it: Theybouglit it from the DOT and cut it up into.smaller sections. The old bridge parts • were then loaded on barges -and towed to shipyard in Tampa. It was then painstakingly.build to Disney's high standards and putinto use. Today of passengers from around the world:ride the Main Street Railroad daily without a thought about the history that links Wabasso to Disney. Nowas you crossoverthehigh "arch" of the Wabasso Bridle thatspans the Intracoastal Waterway, yourvista includes Orchid Island, the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean and the Disney Vero Beach Resort. And as .you take the railroad around the Magic Kingdom theme park you cross over the old Wabasso swi ig bridge. It seems that fate has forever connected the Wabas- so Bridge to Disney in the beautiful ch-cle.of life. 24 Ari" .insidCrrackAlmanac.com Volume 21 • Issue 3 25