Category: Roads
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Madeline Island – Bayfield Ferry
Crossing to Lake Superior’s Madeline Island, Wisconsin (August 2007) We drove north up the peninsula from Ashland but we still had to find a way across the Chequamegon Bay to Madeline Island. No road connected Bayfield (map) to La Pointe (map). With only 200 year-round residents, it simply wasn’t practical to build a towering suspension…
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Jamestown-Scotland Ferry
Crossing the James River near Jamestown, Virginia (October 2007) I wanted to avoid heavy traffic on Interstate 64 during my drive to Williamsburg, Virginia, electing instead to hug the rural southern bank of the James River. It took longer and I went farther, but I wandered empty winding ribbons of rolling terrain, woodlands, plantations and…
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Hatteras-Ocracoke Ferry
Hatteras Island to Ocracoke Island, North Carolina (March 2012) We drove down 75 miles of North Carolina’s Route 12, the Beach Road, along the spine of the Outer Banks. This was a long slog even during the winter when the length of highway was blessedly free of tourist traffic. Patience is a virtue. It took…
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Green River Ferry
Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky (July 2013) While visiting Mammoth Cave National Park — and with an interest in ferries already — a slight detour to the Green River Ferry seemed in order. It was easy. The ferry can be found southwest of the Visitor Center. Drive out of the Visitor Center on the Mammoth…
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Ferry Wahkiakum
Crossing the Columbia River between Cathlamet, Washington and Westport, Oregon (July 2012) It used to be difficult to cross the broad Columbia River between Washington and Oregon, especially as one moved closer to its terminus at the Pacific Ocean coastline. Even today with the Astoria-Megler Bridge near the mouth and the Lewis and Clark Bridge…
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Belle Chasse Ferry
Belle Chasse, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana (April 2010) I’ve been to the New Orleans area on numerous occasions but somehow the Belle Chasse Ferry in Plaquemines Parish had eluded me. Finally I made a special effort, traversing the Crescent City Connection bridge towards the West Bank, and drove down through the suburbia of Gretna before arriving…
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Cassville Car Ferry
Crossing the Mississippi River between Wisconsin & Iowa (June 2009) The Cassville Car Ferry (map) crosses the Mississippi River between Cassville, Wisconsin and Turkey River, Iowa. Bridges across the Upper Mississippi are scarce. The river is wide and in these rural areas making it difficult to justify the cost of construction and maintenance of bridge…
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Dorena – Hickman Ferry
Between Dorena, Missouri and Hickman, Kentucky (April 2014) No direct roadway crosses the Mississippi River between the states of Kentucky and Missouri. In fact the river lacks a single bridge crossing for a distance of nearly 85 miles (140 kilometres) from Cairo, Illinois to the Interstate 155 bridge west of Dyersburg, Tennessee. The Dorena-Hickman Ferry…