LEWES' MARKET STREET BRIDGE

MARKET STREET BRIDGE OVER LEWES CREEK

An abstract of “Spanning the Creek” by Hazel D. Brittingham, Betty Grunder, and

Robert G. Stewart, in Volume V, November 2004 Journal of the Lewes Historical

Society.

Market Street bridge was one of the first of the earliest to cross Lewes Creek and was noted

in Shankland's 1723 survey of Lewestown.

In that survey the town was to have four principal streets, Front, Market, Shipcarpenter

and Mulberry, with numbered side streets. Lewes then had an outdoor market place

like most other towns. This market place was behind the small brick jail which faced

Back Street. Back Street is, was, whatever, 2^nd Street, so the jail house was at 2^nd and Market.

On 6 November 1773, the Pennsylvania Three Lower Counties Legislature authorized the

construction of a toll bridge at the bottom of Market Place to cross the Lewes Creek. This

bridge was to have a 16 x 8 foot 'draw' space  fitted with a 'lift' and chains for raising it for ships

to pass under.. Named as commissioners for this too bridge were John Rodney , Henry

Fisher and Henry Neill. They were charged “to build, erect, a bridge and causeway

over the Lewes Creek, to begin at or near the place where the fort stood, thence, in a

straight distance to the point of fast land on the cape side of said creek.

The legislative act also established a 'subscription fund' , not to exceed , 1000 lbs to

pay for the project. Any person contributing 3 lbs , with his family members as well as

servants, were exempt of the toll. Toll was one pence for person on foot and three pence

for horse and rider.

Peter White was the carpenter chosen to build the bridge, and paid 57 lbs, 14 shillings,

and nine pence for the job. Mr. White completed the bridge on 12 August 1775.

During the Revolutionary War money was hard to come by, the scarcity of contributors

and low revenue from tolls, with the need for maintenance, Market Street Bridge became

a financial liability and not the money maker envisioned.

Market Street Bridge was important to the towns people of Lewes as it allowed them to cross

the creek with their livestock for grazing , quick access to fishing, to gather oysters, harvest

beach plums cranberries and huckleberries, as had been designated by the Warner Grant

Act of William Penn.

Lewes town records of 1819 to 1823 show the Market Street Bridge continued to be a

problem and it was planned to tear it down, clear the creek up to South Street and erect a

new improved Market Street Bridge, however, it was 1914 when the bridge was removed.

Absract March 2, 2018 by Harrison H., for www.delmarhistory.blogspot.com and

Facebook's Lewes to Ocean City pages.