Graphic testimony to Dutch heritage in 1927

Kill in Dutch can be translated as river. So when the new drawbridge across the Broadkill River adjacent to where Route 1 crosses today was completed in 1927, the big bold letters - across the face of the counterbalance for the single-leaf draw - announced in a translated form: Broad River River.

This was the year Charles Lindbergh finished his historic first flight across the Atlantic Ocean in an airplane and the year the New York Yankees fielded one of baseball’s greatest teams ever. Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth hammered the ball all over the field and out, while contractors and engineers in Delaware put the finishing touches on this critical river crossing between the beaches and points north.

This photograph was one of many included in the Department of Transportation’s annual report for that year.