Drawbridge over the canal in Lewes in 1933

There has been a lot of discussion recently about spending millions of dollars to refurbish the drawbridges in Lewes and Rehoboth Beach.This photograph shows the single-span drawbridge that was over the canal in Lewes in 1933, not long after completion of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal project. DelDOT eventually replaced this single-leaf bridge, in 1983, with the double-leaf bridge that formerly carried Route 1 across the canal north of Dewey Beach, along what is known now as the Forgotten Mile. The bridge was floated up the canal to Lewes for the replacement project.

The Army Corps of Engineers completed construction of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal - including installation of this bridge - in 1927. It was intended to serve as a link between villages and farms around the Inland Bays and Delaware Bay for shipping produce, but the advent of railroads and better highways quickly rendered that commercial component obsolete. The canal was also meant to be part of an intracoastal waterway for vessels traveling along the Delmarva Peninsula, but constant shoaling and infrequent dredging due to budget restrictions have limited that usage to ultra-shallow vessels, making the canal and connecting waterways to the south almost exclusively recreational.