Ever wondered about the 'Dolly Parton' bridge's real name?

Who says you can’t learn anything by reading the newspaper nowadays?

If you read last Friday’s edition of The Mobile Press-Register closely you may have seen the answer to a question that I’ve had for a long time: What’s the proper name for the “Dolly Parton Bridge” on I-65 just north of Mobile? Like a lot of people, I’ve been over this bridge many times, and I’ve always wondered about the bridge’s proper name. As far as I know, there are no signs along the route that mention the bridge’s real name.

In the story, “Bones found belong to man missing since 2009,” on Page 6A, The Press-Register reported that bones found on Feb. 16 beneath the bridge belonged to a Prichard man who’d been missing since 2009. In the story, the writer noted that the proper name of the bridge is the “General W.K. Wilson Bridge.” I mentioned this to my newspaper colleague Butch Adams on Monday, and we both had the same question: So who was General Wilson?

Turns out, Walter K. Wilson Jr. was a Chief of Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and lived in Mobile for many years. Wilson, who died in 1985, was born in Fort Barrancas, Fla. and graduated from West Point in 1929. He served in the Army all over the world, including service in India, Ceylon, Minnesota and Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He was a Chief of Engineers from 1961 to 1965. Wilson was one of the first people to recognize a need for the bridge, and that state named it in his honor when construction was completed.

I was surprised to learn that the “Dolly Parton Bridge” is relatively young. Construction began in 1978 and was completed in 1980. In all, the bridge is just over six miles long, making it one of the longest bridges in the country. Another of the nation’s longest bridges is the Jubilee Parkway, which crosses Mobile Bay, south of the “Dolly Parton Bridge.” It’s 7-1/2 miles long.

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This week also marks the start of Confederate History Month, a month that’s been officially set aside by the State of Alabama to recognize and honor the history of the Confederate States of America. The high point of Confederate History Month is Confederate Memorial Day, which is the fourth Monday of each April in Alabama. This official state holiday is observed each year to honor those who died fighting for the Confederate States of America.

If you’re interested in Civil War history, you might want to check out the Battle of Selma reenactment, which will be held April 25-28 at Battlefield Park in Selma. This annual event commemorates a battle that took place on April 2, 1865, near the end of the war itself. The battle resulted in a Union victory about a month before the war’s official end on May 9 of that year. This year’s reenactment will mark the 148th anniversary of the Battle of Selma.

For more information about this year’s reenactment, visit www.battleofselma.com.