There has been a railroad bridge over Sandusky Bay, connecting Bay Bridge in Margaretta Township, Erie County to Danbury Township, Ottawa County since 1854. You can see pictured above a representation of the bridge on the left side of an 1898 birds-eye map of the Sandusky area, published by the Alvord- Peters Company.
Samuel Cathermanreceived the contract for the construction of this bridge, and employed three hundred men during this project. The May 30, 1854 issue of the Sandusky Daily Commercial Register reported that once the railroad bridge was completed across Sandusky Bay, there would be continuous rail service from Sandusky to Chicago, a total of 271 miles. According to Dean K. Fick’s book The Lakeside and Marblehead Railroad, the bridge was commissioned by the Port Clinton Railroad and the Junction Railroad in 1854, but it was abandoned in 1858. It was reopened in 1872 by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway. Later owners of this bridge were: the New York Central Railroad, Penn Central Railroad and Conrail, and most recently the Norfolk & Southern Railway.
In the 1850s, Sardis Birchard, uncle ofRutherford B. Hayes, tried to stop the development of a railroad bridge across Sandusky Bay
Trains going across Sandusky Bay carried mail for the United States Post Office. These photographs of “fast mail” trains, from the early twentieth century, show the trains traveling on the railroad bridge across Sandusky Bay
In 1929, the opening of the Sandusky Bay Bridge allowed for automobile traffic across the Sandusky Bay
In the 1960s, the four lane Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge , a part of State Route 2, was constructed parallel to the Sandusky Bay Bridge
The portion of State Route 2 commencing at the approach of the Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge and extending through Erie County Jackie Mayer Miss America Highway Sandusky resident who served as Miss America Sandusky Bay Bridge and the Thomas A. Edison Memorial Bridge were in use from 1965 until the mid-1980s when the State of Ohio