Building Bermuda Bridge

The bridge outlived its use. Vehicles stopped crossing in 1982, and the steel triple Pratt truss, raised in 1912 by Black labor, is now the only historic crossing left on Cane River. Natchitoches Parish owns it, and it is eligible for the National Register for its transportation and engineering. By 2021 it had fallen into disrepair and needed a structural inspection of its steel, and the Cane River National Heritage Area, the national park and the Waterway Commission sought a feasibility study, capped at $25,000, on turning it into a pedestrian and bicycle bridge.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cane River Creole National Historical Park — steps away
  Oakland and Magnolia, two Cane River cotton plantations kept as they stood, told through the enslaved families who worked them, the 1864 and 1804 freedom seekers and the tenant farmers who stayed into the 1960s.
• Melrose Plantation — 4.8 mi
  The Cane River estate built on land granted to Louis Metoyer, son of Marie Thérèse Coincoin, with the Yucca House and African House, later an artists' retreat; guided tours Thursday to Sunday.
• St. Augustine Church, Isle Brevelle — 5.1 mi
  The parish church at the heart of the Cane River Creoles of color, begun by Augustin Metoyer on his family's land and still holding Mass for the community that grew from Marie Thérèse Coincoin's children.
• Fort St. Jean Baptiste State Historic Site — 8.0 mi
  A reconstruction of the 1716 French fort beside the Natchitoches village, with a palisade of nearly 2,000 pine logs, a chapel and storeroom, and living-history programs, open Wednesday to Sunday.

More markers nearby

• The Battle of Bermuda Bridge — steps away
• The Helaire Family of Oakland / The Shields Family of Oakland — steps away
• Bois d'arc (Osage Orange) — steps away
• The Sound of Time (Oakland Bell) — steps away