2021 WBF Christmas Ornament

Description

If you have ever been to Wrightsville Beach, you have walked, biked, or driven over the C. Heide Trask Memorial Bridge. C. Heide Trask Sr (1902-1957), a member of the State Highway Commission, pushed for the drawbridge and is largely responsible for its existence. The bridge, completed and opened in 1958, was named in honor and memory of Mr. Trask after his death in 1957. It replaced the old two-lane drawbridge that had welcomed visitors to the island since 1935.

The C. Heide Trask Memorial Bridge is technologically significant as an example of a simple trunnion, double leaf, bascule bridge that used the innovative Hopkins-drive-system as the common base for its operating machinery. The system allowed for the pre-assembly of high-speed components in the shop and simplified erection and alignment in the field, important advances for a movable bridge type that required precise operations. In a simple trunnion design, the bascule leaves pivot in a vertical plane (up and down), with the center of rotation fixed at the pivot point or trunnion.

Over the long term, the simple trunnion proved more economical and simpler to construct, operate, and maintain than several of the earlier bascule designs. The Trask Memorial Bridge is one of only two bascule bridges in North Carolina. The span at the heart of this 15-span, 731-long-bridge is the 171-foot-long bascule. Concrete counterweights, necessary to the teetertotter-like movement of the bridge, are framed into the heel ends of its bascule leaves. The bascule retains its original mechanical systems including motors, gear sets, and Hopkins-drive. The 14 approach spans, which give the bridge its extensive total length, are 41-foot-long, tee beam spans finished with statestandard-design, concrete balustrades.

The Trask Memorial Bridge carries US 74/US 76 over the Intracoastal Waterway between Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach. It was built to replace a much shorter bascule span located just to its south. (That span’s old approach roadways are still visible.) The State Highway Commission designed the bridge with the assistance of consulting engineer L.O. Hopkins of Nashville, Tennessee, the developer and namesake of the bridge’s drivesystem.