Grove Celebrates the Opening of the New Sailboat Bridge

Tuesday, February 1st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A new bridge over a section of Grand Lake opened Tuesday. Sailboat Bridge has such unique architecture that it is known as a signature bridge. Itâ€™s the second largest water bridge in the state of Oklahoma.

87-year-old Helen Crawford has seen many â€œfirstsâ€ in her lifetime. As a matter of fact, she was one of the first people to ever cross over the old Sailboat bridge. It wasn't even open yet, but she was giving a judge a ride to Bartlesville, so she shoved some rocks out of the way and made her way cross. "The judge had bought a car from my dad, but he was old and didn't drive, so he asked me if I'd drive him over there," Crawford said.

Crawford has to admit, a lot has changed. "I can remember when I was six or seven, we had a car although we only drove it about five miles out into the country on Sundays, the rest of the time we walked."

Walking was the order of the day for the bands, school children, dignitaries who were among the first to walk across the state of the art bridge. The structure is more than 3,000 feet long and has a center arch that stands 52 feet high. The City of Grove came out to celebrate in song, speeches and a prayer.

The old bridge is still standing, right next to the new one. It was built in 1939 for $370,000. The new one will have a final price tag of nearly $25 million. Architects plan to add two more lanes to the new bridge by next year. Even though they're snow-covered now, the bridge also has a lane for people who prefer to walk or ride a bike across the lake.