An acquaintance of mine grew up in northwestern Forsyth County back in the 1950s. He knows I love fishing; he also knows I love Lake Lanier and pride myself on possessing a wealth of Lake Lanier “trivia” knowledge.
The more obscure the fact, the better the tidbit of knowledge, IMHO.
For instance, I learned years ago that Toto Creek, located at the upper end of the lake on the Chestatee River side, is named in honor of a Cherokee family that farmed and hunted throughout its drainage basin.
The Toter Clan was large and well known but like most of their Cherokee relatives they were eventually forced out of the area once gold was discovered in the Chestatee River in the late 1830s.
Back to my opening statement: Bill learned that I love Lanier trivia and shared with me his earliest memories of the area before the reservoir was filled. On one occasion he asked me if I ever stumbled across the old Flowery Branch Bridge.
Scratching his head as if to help focus to his memory, Bill said that his mother was a teacher employed in Hall County, and that he was allowed to attend the elementary school where she taught. That meant a daily trip from northwestern Forsyth County into Hall County; that meant a twice-a-day crossing of the Chattahoochee River using the Flowery Branch Bridge.
As a young boy he was awestruck by the size of the steel structure spanning the river. He would beg his mother to honk the car’s horn as they passed beneath the overhead support superstructure; occasionally she would indulge his childhood imagination. He told the story affectionately as if it happened yesterday.
The bridge was where Lights Ferry Road left Hall County, crossed the river and then split into a pair of roads that took motorists to the areas around either Vann’s Tavern or Bethel Parks.
To be honest I had never taken the time to locate the ancient structure. I told Bill I would check it out.
To be honest, until I read a story written by local scribe Johnny Vardeman about a year-and-a-half ago I thought no bridge spans remained beneath the lake. I was given that bit of misinformation in 1981 after spending the day with a local “lake expert” and real estate agent.
It was my first visit to the area and I ended up buying a lake home he had for sale. I guess I also bought his claim that before the lake was impounded all the steel bridge spans were dismantled and sold for scrap, or burned if they were constructed of wood.
In retrospect that realtor’s story was the seminal moment in my fascination with Lake Lanier trivia and I was having trouble letting go of that old, but incorrect, account.
Finding the old bridge was easy. Tuesday mornings on Lake Lanier are usually quiet. Last Tuesday morning was also calm; mirror-like surface conditions made finding the “proof” of my errant assumption an easy task.
My confidence as an expert on Lake Lanier lore has been shaken. If only sonar hadn’t been invented, I told myself in a fit of self-pity. What other planks in my Lanier trivia knowledge base would/could now be shaken?
Did I just hear someone whisper that the Three Sisters actually weren’t? Oh, woe is me!
