52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks 2025 – Week 41: Water

NOTE: I accepted the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge headed by fellow genealogy blogger Amy Johnson Crow. The idea behind this challenge is that you will receive email prompts, a word or phrase, every week, and you find something about your research or family history to write about.  Click HERE to read my first 52 Ancestors blog post in 2019.

One of the things I remember most about traveling when I was younger was that no matter where you were going the only way out of Newport, Arkansas was to cross the Newport bridge, or as we always called it the Blue bridge. When driving over it I would always sing the ‘we are going over the blue bridge, the blue bridge, the blue bridge’. By the 1990s highway 67 was one of the main highways in Arkansas and ended in Newport. So we no longer used the Blue bridge as much. It now has a walking trail on it. I say I’m going to walk across it someday, but I still have yet to do it.

The Newport bridge opened in 1930 to much fanfare, the bridge over the White River in Newport was constructed at the location of the old Newport, or upper ferry. Ferry service had existed at this point on the White River since approximately 1835. The new bridge helped speed traffic on Highway 67 south toward Little Rock and beyond. Its distinctive blue paint earned it the affectionate local nickname “The Blue Bridge”.