The assembly of this structure was no small task. Equipment that had never been seen on West Island shores had been driven or barged to the Causeway site. I remember going down to the beach one morning and finding the beach looking like the Normandy invasion. Well at least in my 8 year old eyes. There was a big (for the time) crane, a few Army trucks, Deuce and a Halfs along with a dump truck. The plan was to assemble as much as could be done in one lane to allow traffic to pass. Once that objective was reached the entire cause way was closed to traffic for about a week. There was about 3 feet of roadway on either side of the Bailey for pedestrian traffic, remember, there was no sidewalk then, only a 10" wide curb to avoid traffic. Since there was no traffic it didn't really matter that year anyways. Cars were allowed to park a lot that had been cleared next to Earls Marina, where a white boathouse stands today. There was about 100 or so cars thet were left there overnight as the residents had to walk from Long Island to home. There was a Fairhaven Police officer stationed on the Island side, with a station wagon I believe. He would meet some residents at the bridge and provide transportation to their houses.I remember the tail pipe lasted only a couple of days on the wagon because the driver had to turn around at the bridge to return to the island. The high curb just made a mangled mess of the end of the tailpipe. It wasn't long before the Island roads took it's toll on the rest of the muffler system and you got to know it's location on the island by it's loud exhust. Most of us just walked across unless it was raining or you had some heavy goods to bring along. Little Red Wagons were a popular accessory.

Below is a picture from the Standard Times of the Bailey Bridge

The Bailey Bridge was about 40 feet long and assembled over the existing span which was only about 20 feet or less. Under the wood decked steel bridge the Army Engineers had used timber stacks about 40" high to support the Bailey and spread the weight load over a larger area to reduce the stress on the old bridge. Approach ramps on both sides allowed the vehicles crossing the bridge to climb up to the elevated deck. I recall those ramps to be fairly steep, about 50 degrees, but I may be wrong on that number. The type of Bailey Bridge installed was of only one lane of travel. So traffic approaching the bridge had to try to 'see' beyond the bridge and determine if any other vehicles were approaching the ramp on the other side. Even though traffic was much less on the bridge 40 years ago there were still tie ups. It wasn't uncommon for drivers not to see a car climbing the opposite side of the bridge and require one vehcile to have to literally back down. Certain older drivers were known to never yield the right of way even though the opposing car was nearly over the entire span. More on that later.

Beacuse of the height and angle of the temporary bridge long wheelbase trucks couldn't manuever over the bridge. The bottoms would probably scrape along the deck getting them stuck and their weight rating was usually over the bridge's limit anyways. The school bus was one such poblem. Prior to the Bailey Bridge the school bus was a Union Street Railway bus. Green of color and a vintage from the 1950's with oval split rear windows and chrome bumpers and trim those old busses had lots of character. So did the driver, a gentleman named Clem who frowned on kids who used to swing from the overhead passenger hand rails. Because the bus couldn't travers the new bridge a solution was devised for the students. Heating oil deliveries were handled by a large truck delivering to Earls Marina, which had become a stort of 'staging point' and then transferred via a pipe system run along the causeway road to a smaller truck on the Island side of the bridge. The busses were now managed by Tremblys' Bus Co. Using a regular yellow bus between Earl's and the schools the students then had to climb into a VW Bus, which sometimes had to make 2 trips to get all kids over. I remember some kids who have to ride in the cargo area over the engine. There was plenty of room back there but there were no seats and you could look out the back window but it was noisy as hell!

In consideration of an emergency a Fire Truck was stationed on the Island but I don't think it was ever used. The Town ambulance at the time was a modified Pontiac Bonneville wagon, as was common in those days. The added weight of the raised roof and equipment and along with the long wheelbase caused the driver to have to slowly creep up the ramps to minimize damage from dragging components. Many an exhaust system fell prey to the Bailey Bridge.

Since the temporary bridge was a structure raised over the deck of the old bridge there was plenty of room for the smaller kids to scramble around underneath it. That meant it was a good place for activities that you may not want to be seen doing, too. Schwinn Stingrays and Sears Stick Shift bikes were very popular that summer and trying to jump our bikes at the top of the ramps was fun until you diggered on the deck of the bridge. The ramp was just too long and the bikes were too heavy to really get any good air on a jump.

The incovenience of the bridge didn't seem to stop many from coming over to the Island. The High School parties continued at the Town Beach and the higher deck was a good platform to see the girls on the beach. Jumping off of the Bailey Bridge, over the causeway railing was quite a feat, though I persosnally never tried it. Those who misjudged were certain to never try it again and ended up walking kind of funny for the rest of the summer.

The most memorable incident at the Bailey Bridge I remember happened late one Summer morning. I was in my backyard and I heard the loudest bang I had ever heard down here. I knew right away something had happened and soon heard sirens coming down Sconticut Neck Road. It was my habit to ride my bike to the causeway and see what street the police or firemen would turn down and try to keep pedaling like hell to keep up with the emergency vehicles. It was a common practice back then, several people would wait at their street corner to see where the emergency was and of course speculate as to what, who and why. This time though everybody was migrating down to the bridge. I followed the masses and realized there had been an accident ON the Bailey Bridge. A 65 Ford convertible with 4 guys in it had decided to try and jump the bridge ramp, unfortunately a woman in a nwere Ford sedan was leaving the island and they hit on the east side ramp. The convertible's inertia pushed the sedan back down the ramp and one of it's wheel and rear end was hanging off the causeway. When I arrived the 4 guys were all sitting or laying on the roadway, two of them with pretty bad facial injuries. One guy hit the windshield pretty hard and another in the back seat just about went through the canvas roof. The woman stayed in her car due to her injuries. It took a couple of hours to get it all cleaned up and it caused quite a bit of excitement on the island for a few weeks.