Richard V. Woods Memorial Bridge

The Richard V. Woods Memorial Bridge, (known locally as the Woods Bridge) is a swing bridge that connects downtown Beaufort with Lady's Island and the outer Sea Islands in Beaufort County, South Carolina. It carries U.S. Route 21 Business (US 21 Bus.). The bridge is named in memory of Richard V. Woods (1935–1969), who was a South Carolina Highway Patrol officer killed in the line of duty and was opened on December 17, 1959, having replaced an earlier swing-bridge that was built 1927.

The bridge swings on its central axis to open for boat traffic which is too tall to clear the bridge, and has an operator's station in the center of the span from which an attendant can operate the bridge. Due to the presence of the Intracoastal Waterway, the bridge is required to frequently open for boat traffic to pass through.

The bridge was featured in the film Forrest Gump (1994) as a stand-in for a bridge across the Mississippi River. In the film, Forrest Gump is interviewed by television reporters about his cross-country running trip while crossing the bridge.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Richard V. Woods Memorial Bridge" and modified on November 30, 2021 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.