Here’s a curious structure surrounded by vines and other vegetation. Any idea where it is? (Hint: Somewhere in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.) Send your guess to feedback@statehousereport.com — and remember to include your name, home city and contact information.
Last week’s mystery, “Empty bridge,” shows the so-called “Bridge to Nowhere” in the Charleston Neck area between Charleston and North Charleston.
George Graf of Palmyra, Va., explained: “On the other side of the bridge sits 182 acres of unused, valuable, privately owned land called the Magnolia property. It’s on the peninsula, adjacent to the Ashley River and convenient to I-26. For years, the area housed fertilizer plants and lumber treatment facilities. During that time, harmful chemicals made their way into the groundwater and soil and would have to be cleaned up. In 2003, the City of Charleston, along with the private developers who owned the land, dreamed up a plan to redevelop the Magnolia property into a glorious, mixed-use development.
“In 2008, construction began on the $10 million bridge but while the bridge was being erected, the economy promptly collapsed. In 2010, … the property went into bankruptcy. The project stalled. But the bridge remained.”
Today, the project is getting a breath of new life as developers are planning infrastructure construction in the spring.
Congratulations to Graf and others who identified the photo: Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Wayne Beam of Clemson; Pat Keadle of Wagener; Frank Bouknight of Summerville; Elizabeth Jones of Columbia; and David Lupo of Mount Pleasant.
Send us a mystery. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
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