From the Jan. 16, 2010, Wilmington (NC) Star-News "Back Then" column.
On Jan. 21, 1960, Carolina Beach civic leader Glen M. Tucker was assured by state officials that US-421 from Wilmington to Carolina Beach would be expanded to four lanes and that a new bridge would be built over Snow's Cut.
Before that, the beach was served bu a two-lane road that had problems with the large numbers of people going to the beach. Plus the new bridge was to be built high enough that boats along the intercoastal waterway would not have to cause the bridge to go up.
Snow's Cut was named after Army Corps of Engineers Major William A. Snow, who directed it and was completed in 1930. Parts of the old two-lane road can still be seen. Making the cut caused the Federal Point peninsula to, in effect, become an island. I remember always getting excited crossing Snow's Cut Bridge and seeing the ocean to the east from the top of it. "We're at the beach!! And Fort Fisher is so near!!"
Up until 1910, there was no paved road between Wilmington and Carolina Beach. As the beach increased in popularity, visitors generally boarded steam boats in Wilmington and went down the Cape Fear River to a point near Sugar Loaf, disembarked and took a small train to the beach.
US-421 continues past Carolina Beach all the way to past Fort Fisher to the "Rocks" by the old Battery Buchanan. The "Rocks" closed off New Inlet, a favorite entrance for blockade-runners during the Civil War.
Oh Boy!! The Beach!! --Old B-Runner
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