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| Photo courtesy of Mobile Bay Vintage Photos. |
NOTE: This post is the second in a series of excerpts from the road trip diary Hazel Pierce kept on her honeymoon trip with husband Don Vickers in 1926. Along with the excerpts are some observations and comments from this
blogger.
"Friday (April 30th) morning we visited a little
and bid the folks farewell. After dinner we made preparation to leave on the
2:30 [p.m.] boat for Daphne. We enjoyed the trip very much. We drove on to Bay
Minette and spent the night at the Trammel Hotel."
A road connecting the western and eastern shores of Mobile Bay did not open until 1927. Before then, ferries such as the one above carried passengers between Mobile, Alabama, on the western shore of Mobile Bay to Daphne or Fairhope on the eastern shore. They also carried cars. Even small boats such as this one carried one or two cars parked on the open forward deck. You can see a photo of a similar boat loaded with cars at Photo-Graphic Art by John Lewis.
In 1927, the Cochrane Bridge Causeway opened and travel by car from one side of the bay to the other not only became easy, but a way of life. And bay boat ferries disappeared.
My husband and I really like the Cape May - Lewes ferry, which we use to avoid the Washington DC traffic. It takes about 50 cars and is a smooth ride with no driving for 80 minutes! I don't know why more people don't use it. Ferries would be great for a honeymoon trip.
ReplyDeleteMobile Bay is only about 10 miles wide, so a ferry ride these days wouldn't last very long. There is still a ferry (https://www.facebook.com/mobilebayferry), however, that runs across the mouth of the bay between the two Civil War forts Morgan and Gaines. To drive around the bay from one fort to the other would be a trip of more than 80 miles.
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