The Bridge That Forever Changed Sea Isle

By DONALD WITTKOWSKI A plaque on the bridge commemorating its construction in 1963 refers to it as the “Sea Isle City Boulevard Bridge.” But a national tragedy, just weeks after Sea Isle’s then-new bridge was dedicated on Nov. 2, 1963, changed everything. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, prompted Sea Isle to name its newly created entryway into town as “JFK Boulevard.” Sea Isle’s Board of Commissioners, the local form of government for the town in those days, voted on Dec. 9, 1963, to memorialize the entryway in the late president’s honor at the urging of two local groups, the VFW and the Italian-American Club. “They wanted us to dedicate the entryway into town coincident with the dedication of the bridge in memory of the deceased president,” Jack Gibson, who was serving as Cape May County’s engineer in 1963, said of the VFW and Italian-American Club On the 58th anniversary of the city’s decision to formally approve the name JFK Boulevard, Gibson recalled the importance of a project that helped Sea Isle to recover from the monstrous 1962 storm that obliterated large swaths of the town. “We created a whole new bridge and right-of-way when the old causeway was washed out by the storm,” said Gibson, 87, who now serves as president of Sea Isle’s City Council. Gibson noted that the bridge was approved, designed and constructed in only one year – a phenomenal achievement, especially when compared to the lengthy regulatory process required for major construction projects at the shore these days. The bridge looms over the bay and marshlands to provide an entryway well above flood levels. Sea Isle’s main entryway prior to 1963 was an old drawbridge on 44th Street. Although the low-slung drawbridge survived the Ash Wednesday storm in March 1962, the causeway leading to it was swamped by floodwaters, cutting off the island from the mainland. Residents had to be evacuated out of Sea Isle by helicopter. The new bridge had been planned prior to the storm, but the devastation it caused certainly underscored the importance of having a modern structure towering over the surrounding flood-prone bay and marshlands. “I don’t know how much impetus the storm gave it, but I’m sure some,” said Bob Thibault, a member of the Sea Isle City Historical Society and Museum. Thibault said the new entryway was once referred to as the “41st Street Parkway” because it had traced 41st Street. He also said there were plans to name the new road in honor of William Haffert, a newspaper publisher who had served as Sea Isle’s mayor in the 1940s and ’50s. All these years later, Haffert will finally be recognized. Sea Isle Mayor Leonard Desiderio said the city is going to erect a plaque next spring on JFK Boulevard in the late Haffert’s honor. Desiderio noted that the entryway had once been ridiculed as “Haffert’s Folly” for his role in its planning. But what was once branded as a folly turned out to be a wide, modern corridor – a grand entrance to serve Sea Isle and its tourism industry. Sea Isle took JFK Boulevard to another level with a multimillion-dollar “Beach to Bay” beautification of the gateway completed in 2013. A series of road, landscaping, safety and municipal projects were added to the central corridor stretching from the city’s marina to the beachfront Promenade over a five-year span. JFK Boulevard is so wide because this was the same corridor that once served as the entry point for the railroads that traveled to Sea Isle long ago, Gibson explained. Council President Jack Gibson and Mayor Leonard Desiderio look at a plaque on the bridge commemorating its construction in 1963. Gibson served as Cape May County engineer at that time and has his name listed on the plaque, along with other dignitaries from that era. Gibson recalled with a chuckle that the bridge cost slightly more than $1 million to build in 1963 – a substantial sum in those days, but quite a bargain when compared to the colossal expense for modern bridges. In the nearly 60 years the bridge has existed, the $1 million construction cost shows that the project was certainly worth every penny, Gibson pointed out. “What you invest in capital projects is a tremendous investment,” he said. Gibson credited the late Congressman Charles Sandman, who represented Cape May County in the New Jersey Senate from 1954 to 1966, for securing the federal funding to build the bridge. “Sandman’s goal was to see outdated old drawbridges to be replaced,” Gibson said, adding that Sandman also secured funding for new bridges in Ocean City and Avalon. In his role as county engineer in the 1960s, Gibson helped to oversee the bridge’s construction. Gibson’s name is among a host of city and Cape May County dignitaries listed on a weather-beaten metal plaque embedded in the bridge to commemorate its construction in 1963. The plaque calls it the “Sea Isle City Boulevard Bridge.” The question remains, 58 years later, whether the bridge itself was also formally named in honor of John F. Kennedy after his assassination, or just the boulevard. To Gibson, it really doesn’t matter. “The two things coincide,” he said of the bridge’s construction and the naming of JFK Boulevard. The now-frayed program is from the bridge's dedication ceremony on Nov. 2, 1963. (Courtesy of Bob Thibault of the Sea Isle City Historical Society and Museum)