THE OLD SANDUSKY BAY BRIDGE

When the old Sandusky Bay Bridge opened on Feb. 2, 1929, people from both Erie and Ottawa Counties were delighted to have direct automobile access across Sandusky Bay. The thousands of tourists to the Lake Erie Islands region were also very glad to have a quick and easy way to travel across the bay to get to their favorite beach or fishing spot. The bridge was originally operated by the Sandusky Bay Bridge Company, which charged each vehicle fifty cents to cross the bridge. On May 1 1936, the State Bridge Commission of Ohio took over operation, and immediately reduced the toll from fifty cents to twenty-five cents. A toll collector was stationed near the drawbridge.

In the close up photograph, you can clearly read the sign which states the fee for autos is twenty five cents.
On Friday, August 30, 1946, Govenor Frank J. Lausche cut the tape across the bridge span near the toll gate, and the Bay Bridge became toll free. The first car to head west on the bridge after the ribbon cutting was Howard Higgins of Rochester, New York. The driver of the car traveling east on the bridge was Jay Johnson from Los Angles, California. You can read more about the Sandusky Bay Bridge becoming toll-free in the August 31, 1946 issue of the Sandusky Register Star News, now on microfilm at the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center.

The Sandusky Bay Bridge ceased operations in the mid-1980s. Today drivers use the Thomas A.Edison Memorial Bridge on US Route 2 to cross the bay. Both bridges were used from 1965 until 1985, when the state removed the Bay Bridge’s steel center because of high maintenance costs. The Sandusky Bay Bridge ceased operations in 1985. The two ends of the Sandusky Bay Bridge are now used as fishing piers. They’re maintained by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.