The Wilmington morning star., 1947-06-13
Bridge Tenders Life One
Of Monotony, L@onesomness
By CARL CAHILL
Star Staff Writer

The hours of a drawbridge OPP
orator r. long and monotonous.
They are broken occasionally
when there is a wreck on the
span, a ship rams the understruc'
ture or a a loses a hubcap. The
latter incident happens more fire.
quently than the other mishaps.
Frank S. Shepard and w. H
Guy, who sit at the controls of the
Cape Fear river d-aWbridge,
spend most Of their time reading
or listening to the ralio. There is
little else TO do-eXcept collect
parts which fall off passing automo.
biles or replace a blown fuse which
halts the bridge in midair.
Shepard has been drawing the
Cape Fear Bridge for II years.
He readily admits it is monoton.
Gus work and quickly adds, but
you get used to it."
For n thing he is not allowed
visitors only on special occasions.
And On special occasions few per-
sons like to walk alongside fast
moving ears passing over the
bridge to get to the tower.
He reads, sports stories mostly
and lisens to the radio, detective
stories mostly. In all his II years
only four vessels have rammed the
bridge.
In that same period Of time three
car mishaps have brought him
from his little control tower tc
inspect the damage.
Three men were killed in one Of
these wrecks. TIL other wrecks
were OF a less CORY nature.
At other times he has collected
as many as IS hubcaps which
bounded off passing cas-. Once
Is pounds of miscellaneous cal
accessories were piled up on the
bridge. He gives the material K
anyone that happens to ask for it
Twice he saw pocketbooks dror
from passing autos. But before
he could get to them another mo
torist stopped and picked up the
loot and drove rapidly away.
Shepard has been annoyed by
only one visitor 70 his bridge
That was late one night. He re
turned to his control room to fine
a bum sitting in his chair witt
his feet on the control boare
smoking his cigarettes. The bum
commended he had been beaten by
some persons he had been riding
with and said he sought the bridge
tower for safety.
He didn't, Shepard stated, give
any reasons for using the bridge
operators smokes.
Guy, who has seen five years
service on the bridge, sits out the
lonesome hours on the opposite
shift. The two men work 10 hours
in the day and IA hours at night
By arrangement they work a week
at night and then exchange shifts.
The draw section of the bridge is
powered by four electric motors,
the operators explained. Two
gasoline engines are kept in run
ming order in case the electricity
fails.
Procedure Of the bridge opening
when a vessel approaches includes
the turning on the warning signals,
throwing a switch which admits
the power to the motors, letting
the traffic gates down and then
opening the bridge.
While the operator is doing this
and watching the Is instruments
On the switchboard he must also
record the time the vessel signaled
for an opening, the time the gates
were closed, time they wre fully
drawn open, kind of vessel, name
and number, delay in opening the
bridge, the number of vehicles
that were held up by the bridge
and the weather conditions.
Guy said he has counted as many
as 300 cars and trucks which were
stopped by the bridge.
Also every so often the operators
must record the type of vehicle
which passes over the bridge over
a certain period of time. .
The operator signals the boats
that are approaching by blowing
an air horn three times. This
means the bridge is open. After
the craft is through the draw the
morn is blown four times to Show
the bridge is closing.
only a few times have the op-
orators had to open a bridge for
q boat and then h,ua To nn,nan