SAVANNAH, Ga -- One of Georgia’s largest bridges needs to be replaced, officials say. The bridge was built less than thirty years ago. And it works fine. But officials say the Talmadge Bridge is no longer big enough.
Visitors to Savannah’s historic River Street can watch giant container ships crisscross the city’s waterfront – and they can watch them pass below a cable-stayed bridge that suspends US Highway 17 over the Savannah River.
The bridge’s elegant look has plenty of admirers, including Katie Rose of Atlanta, visiting to celebrate a birthday.
"It’s lovely. and it’s high enough for those boats to get under, which surprised me because I didn’t realize it was as tall as it was," Rose said.
But that space under the city’s Eugene Talmadge bridge is rapidly becoming a problem. The container ship called the Shanghai Trader, built 13 years ago, slips easily under the Talmadge Bridge and into the Port of Savannah. But newer, state of the art cargo ships now sailing from Asia and Europe won’t fit at all.
The new ship is "double the capacity," said Griff Lynch, who runs the port.
"We don’t think that ship is coming here tomorrow or next year but when we talk to experts they tell us you should plan on somewhere between 10 to 12 years."
The Talmadge Bridge can accommodate a container ship that’s 185 feet high. Lynch says the newer bigger cargo ships already have a height exceeding 200 feet. "We need a new bridge," Lynch said.
Lynch said raising the existing bridge isn't an option, engineering-wise. And he said an aquifer below the Savannah River would make a tunnel unlikely.
Earlier this year, controversy surrounding the Talmadge bridge was merely about renaming it. Eugene Talmadge was a virulent segregationist mid-twentieth century Georgia Governor. Many suggested renaming it for Juliet Gordon Low, the Girl Scouts founder whose home is a downtown Savannah attraction. The bridge was built in 1990, shortly before the now-demolished Georgia Dome.
"Everybody was sure whenever this bridge was built that it was going to carry us into way beyond our lifetime," said state Rep. Ron Stephens, who backed changing the name, and now, rebuilding the bridge. "You know it does seem like was just yesterday" since it opened, Stephens said. "But it’s been a while."
And in the time since then, the Port of Savannah has become the fastest growing port in America. Replacing Savannah’s Talmadge Bridge makes sense even to many of its admirers, given the growth of the Port. "They’re a juggernaut," Stephens said.
Yet its obsolescence isn't jarring to Rose, who viewed it from the riverfront. "I’m here to celebrate my fiftieth birthday so I understand that," she chuckled.
It’s quite likely a replacement bridge won’t be named after an old Georgia segregationist. But at what cost? Could be a half billion dollars or more.
