John M. Bates Bridge

John M. Bates, a prominent public-spirited citizen of this section, was honored in 1979 for his many contributions to highway transportation. During the early 1900's he led several highway location parties. He personally financed, built, and managed Bates Ferry across the Congaree River about one mile upstream from here from 1910 to 1922. Fulfilling a lifelong dream, he organized the Richland-Calhoun Bridge Commission in 1921, arranged financing, secured a permit to span the river, and supervised construction of the Bates Ferry Toll Bridge connecting Richland and Calhoun counties, completed in 1923 as a forerunner of the present bridge.

South Carolina · United States