Natchez-Vidalia Bridge. Cost $4,000,000.00. Total length 8,135 ft. Total length of 5 main spans: two–560 ft, two–875 ft. and one 797 ft–3667 ft. This bridge connects U.S. Highways 84 East and West and 65 North and South crosses the bridge to connect with U.S. 61 and the Natchez trace in Natchez, Miss.
After Suzassippi’s recent post about the New Deal Natchez-Vidalia Bridge and its toll plaza, I realized I had a postcard that would show the relationship better than we can see today with the new highway right-of-ways.
Preservation in Mississippi 
I am green with envy that you own this postcard and I don’t. Just kidding :) Thanks for posting and letting us see it too.
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Just think about the fact that I am addicted to buying postcards on eBay and be thankful you don’t suffer from the same malady :-) Glad to share and let others enjoy my addiction.
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I love this view, but I really want to know when the Mississippi was ever blue? :)
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These types of postcards were actually “colorized” photos by artists/lab technicians who had never been to the site. What’s interesting is the structure the eastbound entrance road sits on. I haven’t seen an actual photograph of it.
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This presents an interesting reflection on the layers and uses of history in the early 20th century.
Just north of the railroad tracks that pass under the eastern edge of the bridge on the Natchez side, this postcard gives us an interesting look at early industrial Natchez at the “box factory” (now a parking lot for the Isle of Capri Casino) whose tall chimney was only recently dismantled – and its associated little village of housing and retail establishments – almost all gone now. Just off the right edge of the picture would be the two massive warehouses that dwarfed either side of the Rosalie mansion. Of course, sleeping underneath and nearby this little village are the well-buried remains of the foundations of the 18th-century French Fort Rosalie – a nationally significant archaeological site.
I’m sure it’s no coincidence that the “reconstructed” Fort Rosalie tourist attraction built by Jefferson Davis Dickson followed closely upon completion of the conveniently located Mississippi River Bridge … which also conveniently brought tourists into Natchez for the recently inaugurated Natchez Spring Pilgrimage tour of homes … as did the soon-to-be-initiated Natchez Trace Parkway. The struggle to find the proper balance between progress and industry and preservation and heritage tourism continues!
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I’ve stared at this post card for quite a while, wondering what the surrounding buildings were at that time. Thanks for sharing. Do you know when they stopped charging a toll for the bridge?
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