Ghost Towns of Route 66 (10 page)

Warwick is accessed from exit 157 on Interstate 44.

END OF THE ROAD

A
BRIDGE GAVE RISE TO
B
RIDGEPORT,
and a bridge led to its demise and abandonment. The town was born on the South Canadian River at the site of a stage crossing. The Rock Island Railroad established a work camp and built a bridge in 1891, and the site quickly morphed into a respectable little town.

On February 20, 1895, a post office established at Bridgeport gave the residents a sense of solidity and a promising future. The first decades of the new century did little to dampen that enthusiasm.

The postal road through Bridgeport became a primary roadway for early motorists traversing Oklahoma, and in 1917, this route was absorbed into the Ozark Trails network. Spearheading this important development were business owners in nearby Geary, who assembled their own road crew, improved the road to the river, and negotiated with George Key of the Postal Bridge Company in Oklahoma City for the construction of a permanent bridge at Bridgeport.

The resultant suspension bridge built a mile north of Bridgeport in 1921 furthered Bridgeport's prominence. The tolls charged were steep: one dollar for automobiles, a quarter for horse and rider, ten cents per head of livestock. Because this was the only dependable crossing in the area, the fees were paid, but not without complaint.

In 1926, the Key Bridge was incorporated into the U.S. highway system and became the Route 66 crossing of the South Canadian River. With the purchase of the bridge by the state of Oklahoma in 1930, tolls were suspended.

The good times in Bridgeport ended in 1934 with the completion of a bridge on a realignment of the highway that eliminated the loop through Calumet, Geary, and Bridgeport. In an instant, Bridgeport became an isolated community severed from its primary source of revenue, traffic on Route 66.

The Key Bridge successfully met the needs of local traffic and survived for another dozen years before a 1946 fire rendered it unusable. A salvage firm from Kansas City purchased the bridge and dismantled it in 1952.

Today, the last remnants from this often-overlooked chapter in the history of Route 66 are a scattering of abandoned homes and businesses and the rusty supports for the Key Bridge. However, Bridgeport is not a true ghost, since the town is still home to a handful of residents who value their privacy at the end of a lost highway.

The fast-vanishing links to Bridgeport's gilded age that dot the fields provide few hints it was once a town of importance.

From Interstate 40, turn north on U.S. Highway 281 at exit 101 and turn west on old U.S. 66; the road is well marked. Continue west for a couple of miles, turn north on Market Street, and then turn right on Broadway to Main Street, where you turn left.

Realigning Route 66 and bypassing Bridgeport called for the construction of a bridge consisting of thirty-eight Warren pony trusses to span the South Canadian River.

Engineering Time Capsule

The section of Route 66 between Hinton Junction and Weatherford is a perfect time capsule of Route 66 circa the mid-1930s. The concrete roadway is curbed here to divert rainwater that rolls across the hills, an antiquated highway engineering practice with few surviving remnants.

The thirty-eight span, 3,994-foot “pony” bridge across the South Canadian River that replaced the one at Bridgeport was a federal aid project that opened in 1934. At 3,944 feet, this was and is the longest bridge on Route 66 in Oklahoma.

Lucille Hamon's gas station and motel, just west of Hydro, is one of the most photographed sites on Route 66. Dating to 1941, the structure has changed little, and plans are in the works to refurbish the building in the near future.

Established in 1927, the property known today as Lucille's was operated by Lucille Hamon from 1941 to 2000. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the original Hamon's Court sign is displayed at the Smithsonian Institute.

FOSS

T
HE FIRST MANIFESTATION OF
Foss—named after J. M. Foss, former postmaster in Cordell, Oklahoma, on Turkey Creek north of the present site—vanished with the flood of May 2, 1902. Relocating to higher ground, the residents rebuilt the town at the heart of a vast area of rich farmlands.

By 1912, Foss was a prosperous and substantial community of stone buildings with a business district that included two banks, cotton gins, several general merchandise stores, a newspaper, a wagon works, a machine shop, drugstores, a bakery, a broom factory, and an opera house. At its peak, the population purportedly neared one thousand residents.

Near Foss, Route 66 runs straight as an arrow to the horizon through a pastoral landscape unchanged in appearance since the town was a vital, thriving farming community.

In 1900, the Foss cotton gin was one of the busiest enterprises in the area and an important component of the town economy.
Research Division of the Oklahoma Historical Society