ALWAYS ATTRACTIVEHistoric Charleston is the ideal place to visit or plan a trip simply because it is always enjoyable year round. We have an amazingly scenic city with so much grand historic architecture, and dazzling gardens that feature some blooms and color each season. Add to that the fact that we have boundless waterfront and oceanfront, as well as first class restaurants and hotels – you just can’t beat a visit to Charleston.
Those who come a visit on tours of historic Charleston invariably remark about the oddball numbers on some of the street addresses in the old city. Residential numbers came after the Revolution, and since then, some other buildings have sneaked in among them, so to speak. Either these where old kitchen and carriage houses that were later made into residences or larger house whose parts were divided, leaving us with many 1/2 addresses and a few zeros.
Bridges spanning the Ashley and Cooper rivers to the old city have been struck violently more times than a piñata, creating both tragedy and comedy. The first wooden bridge across the Ashley was built in 1810, but hit by hurricane and destroyed 3 years later. Other than a railroad bridge that was destroyed during the Civil War, there was no vehicle traffic across the Ashley until the late 1800’s, when the steel swing bridge design emerged. But the Ashley bridge was badly placed in relation to the channel and was struck by so many ships, it was declared a hazard to navigation in 1921, and one tug going through was struck in the stern when the revolving trestle did an out-of-control 360. The new bridge opened in 1926 didn’t fare much better, being plowed into by the SS Fort Fetterman in 1955, and cars were redirected across a rail trestle upriver for weeks until it was fixed.
