Skip to main content

Sunnybank Ferry

Image
By
For over a century, the Sunnybank Ferry has carried travelers over the Little Wicomico River in Northumberland County.  The ferry first began operation in 1903 as a hand-pulled cable ferry over the Little Wicomico.  Nearly a decade later, in 1912, the human powered ferry would be replaced by a motorized one.  The A.L.E. -- named after ferry operator's Jynes Crabbe's children, Arley, Lois, and Elmer -- would carry horse and wagon and later automobiles until 1954 when the vessel was destroyed by Hurricane Hazel.  In 1955, a new ferryboat was commissioned, and it was appropriately named, The Hazel.  The Hazel was retired in 1985 by the Northumberland, which is still in use today. (1) 

Today, the Sunnybank Ferry continues to carry locals, bicyclists, and curious tourists from one bank of the Little Wicomico to the other.  The ferry generally operates from dawn to dusk with the exception to inclement weather, higher than normal tides, or repairs to the Northumberland.  The ferry is operated by VDOT and is free of charge.

Directions:
  • From points west: Follow US 360 East to the crossroads of Burgess.  Turn left of Secondary Route 644.  Follow SR 644 to Ophelia at the 'T' intersection turn right to remain on SR 644 and to the ferry.  Once crossing the ferry, you can continue on SR 644 to Reedville where you will reach the beginning of US 360 West.
All photos taken August 26, 2006.

The south landing of the Sunnybank Ferry.  To get the attention of the ferry operator, just blow your horn.

Seagulls hanging out at the ferry's southern landing.

Now on the ferry and exiting the southern landing.

Now on the ferry and exiting the southern landing.

A distant look across the Little Wicomico to the ferry's southern landing.

Boating is a family tradition on the Little Wicomico.


Sources & Links:

  • (1) Virginia Department of Transportation. "Sunnybank Ferry captains are ambassadors."  The Bulletin. May/June. 2003.
  • Virginia Ferry Information ---VDOT
    • Labels:

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

    By
      There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t
    Post a Comment
    Read more

    Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

    By
    The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two
    1 comment
    Read more

    Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

    By
      Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third
    Post a Comment
    Read more