6 bridges with local notable namesakes in the Wilmington area

The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge has been in the news a lot lately since repairs to the structure have started.

The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, which opened in 1969, carries traffic on U.S. 17, U.S. 76 and U.S. 421 across the Cape Fear River between Brunswick County and downtown Wilmington.

Of course, commuters in the Wilmington area travel over a number of different bridges. Many of them have been named for people who have made various contributions to the region.

Here are six of the many local bridges, small to large, with notable namesakes in the Wilmington area.

Meadowlark Lemon Bridge

The late Meadowlark Lemon was a Wilmington native who attended Williston Industrial School, where he played basketball and football. Lemon went on to become the "Clown Prince of Basketball" as a star with the Harlem Globetrotters from 1955-1980. In October 2019, the Third Street Bridge was named in honor of Lemon. The bridge is located in busy downtown Wilmington on Third Street between the Wilson Center at Cape Fear Community College and the WAVE Transit station.

L. Bobby Brown Bridge

Don't let the name confuse you. The L. Bobby Brown Bridge is named after the first mayor of the town of Navassa, not the famous rapper and singer-songwriter. Brown served as mayor from 1977 until 1999. The I-140 bridge in Navassa was dedicated on Oct. 11, 2019.

Isabel Stellings Holmes Bridge

This span across the Northeast Cape Fear was named in 1988 for Isabel Stellings Holmes, a Wilmington native and the first woman to serve on both the North Carolina Board of Transportation and the N.C. Parole Commission. The bridge name is often spelled incorrectly. If Wilmingtonians could change the name of this bridge north of downtown by mere force of misspelling/mispronunciation alone, perhaps it would be called the "Isabella Stallings" Holmes Bridge. The bridge, a four-lane bascule drawbridge, carries N.C. 133 across the Northeast Cape Fear River between U.S. 421 and North Third Street in Wilmington.

Two years before the bridge's naming, it was also featured in the movie "Maximum Overdrive."

C. Heide Trask Memorial Bridge

The construction of the bridge in 1957-1958 was brought about by Wilmington native C. Heide Trask, for whom it was named. At the time of Trask's death in 1957, he was a member of the State Highway Commission, a role in which he pushed for the drawbridge. Trask was chairman of New Hanover County's draft board from 1940-1955 and chairman of the board of James Walker Memorial Hospital. Heide Trask Senior High School in Pender County is also named for him. The bridge to Wrightsville Beach over the Intracoastal Waterway opened in 1958.

Luther H. Jordan Jr. Memorial Bridge

Luther Henry Jordan Jr. ran a funeral home business in Wilmington for many years and served on the Wilmington City Council for more than 15 years. Jordan was Wilmington's first Black mayor pro-tempore. Jordan was elected to the North Carolina Senate in 1993 and served until his death in 2002. While serving in the senate, Jordan was the majority whip and chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. Just west of the Wilson Bridge on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway is the Luther Jordan Memorial Bridge, which takes the highway over Smith Creek, McRae Street and the railroad tracks.

S. Thomas Rhodes Bridge

The bridge's namesake is Samuel Thomas Rhodes, who represented New Hanover County in the state House from 1973 to 1984. A Wilmington native, Rhodes also served as secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural Resources and Community Development from 1985 to 1988 under Gov. Jim Martin. The bridge on U.S. 421 sits just north of the Battleship North Carolina.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington, NC bridges named after local leaders