History
If we
go back in time to the early 1900s, we begin to see the changes
that have come to the Apex Street Bridge community over the last
hundred plus years. It is a community that has grown accustomed
to change. Back then, a cow path (horses and mules used it as
well) came across the top of Apex Hill and went into the valley
to the water it provided below. That's all it was. There was
no need for an organized road or a bridge, the railroad had not
yet arrived, and cars were not prevalent. The neighborhoods of
St. Theresa and Forest Hills did not exist as they do today.
When the railroad arrived (1932), the tracks cut a gash through
Apex Hill, which made the path too steep to use. Within a few
years after the railroad came through, this connector path to
the valley (a neighborhood was developing on the west side of
University Drive by then; that neighborhood would grow into what
we know today as all of Forest Hills) became a connector again
in the form of the Apex Street Bridge (bridge #242 of the City
of Durham) and Apex Street. The American Tobacco Company built
it and gave it to the City of Durham in 1956. For more than 60
years, Lucky Strike cigarettes rolled down the tracks out of
Durham to all parts of the planet. Making cigarettes was what
Durham did best. By that time, the pastures in the valley had
been replaced by a golf course. Shortly thereafter, the golf
course folded as did the planned development and the golf course
became what is now Forest Hills Park.
One of the members of the St. Theresa community said the "rich white folks" of Forest Hills had it built to accommodate their employees (who lived in the St. Theresa neighborhood) in getting to work (this was in the mid fifties). Many members of that community worked for the white community that was developing on the west side of Forest Hills and further up the hill in Morehead Hills; cooking, cleaning, and doing yard work. So it was convenient during a time when, as a society, we were segregated. The predominate means of transportation was still not the car when it came to getting to work.
The real reason the bridge was built
as I understand it now, was to allow an overpass to 
access
University Drive and beyond on one side and a new educational
facility on the other. The train tracks, having cut through Apex
Hill (I call it that but the hill never has had a name), also
crossed the main connector road of Enterprise (a main connector
road then as it is now). At times, the train, when loading and
shifting around cars destined to and from the American Tobacco
Company, would block Enterprise for more than an hour. Since
there was no certain time that this event would happen, many
people who used this Enterprise Street corridor found themselves
late for work, school, and generally inconvenienced by the trains.
It was then (1956) that the American Tobacco Company built the
Apex Street Bridge (along with Apex Street) to allow those that
had been inconvenienced by the train a way to get around the
train tracks by going over the tracks. There was little inconvenience
in that. Today the trains and the track have gone; replaced by
pedestrians and bicycles on the American Tobacco Trail (a rails
to trails project). The need for the Apex Street Bridge as a
by-pass for the trains that often blocked Enterprise Street,
gone as well. No longer is this bridge needed for the purpose
it was built. It served it's purpose well. Like the trains and
the tracks they used, it serves no further use as a transportation
corridor for vehicles. By a vote of 4-3, the City Council of
Durham has brought a peace to the community of the bridge that
it has not known in 60+ years. Gone are the trains and gone are
the vehicles that used the bridge as a shortcut. Now a new era
for the bridge begins. One where people walking and children
biking have replaced vehicular traffic. A good environment for
meeting neighbors. Only 15% of the community of the bridge, when
polled, wanted the bridge reopened to vehicles. These two diverse
neighborhoods, one predominately white, the other predominately
black, came together and were successful in closing the bridge
to vehicular traffic for good.
The company
that built the Apex Street Bridge has long since closed. But
a revitalization of their building complex is well under way.
See what they're doing to the buildings of the company who built
this bridge in the first place. Just like the bridge, it's really
changing the face of downtown where it once was a thriving business.
You can find the Historic American Tobacco Complex here.
If you have photos or stories about the bridge you wish to share, please contact our Executive Director by email. We'll be glad to include them here. The story of the bridge attempts to put into words what has up to this point, just been passed on by word of mouth. I could find no written history of his bridge to include other than what my research has provided.
past events ASBHS.org has participated in:
5/5/05 SWOOP cleanup of Hillside/Chesnut
Earth Day 2005 "South Street Sweep"
2004 National Night Out