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Bridge to Nowhere

10 images Created 22 May 2011

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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"---The story is about a congressman, a bridge and a swamp. It's about history and memory. Race and class. Land and power. And it asks: What do we want South Carolina to look like. The bridge would connect  Rimini to Lone Star, which have been referred to as "ghost towns." The bridge, which would be built next to an old railroad trestle, would affect some of the most pristine environment in South Carolina. Getting the bridge may become a lifelong mission for U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who wants to better the lives of the people that live in this area, one of the poorest in the state. Environmentalist say the bridge will damage this area and its wildlife. Critics all say it is unnecessary and expensive. But the battle continues. .
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"---"I predict at some point in the future, there's going to be a bridge across Lake Marion. That's going to happen," says U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn. "It's not that people resent the vision, they resent the fact I have a vision."
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"----Once you could buy a slice of hoop cheese, a horse collar or a dress on Lone Star. Now, tin roofs curl on empty buildings; a gas pump says 63 cents a gallon.
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"----John Townsend Cooper hunts duck in the fall, kayaks in the spring in Upper Santee and Sparkleberry swamps. "Any good two to three days in the swamp will renew your soul," he says.
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"---Minnie Calhoun returned to Lone Star in 1972, leaving behind a New Jersey teaching career. Her father helped build the railroad line in the late 1800s; she lives where the train once stopped and remembers when Lone Star Road was "full of people" who delivered cotton, picked up mail, paid a dime to ride to Sumter.
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"---The Southen Environmental Law Center calls the Upper Santee Swamp 'one of the state's last intact bottomland hardwood swamps...treasured by hunters, anglers and nature lovers.
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"---Ezekiel Bodrick's Last Stop Convenience Store opens at 6 p.m. and stays open to 11 p.m., "if the boys come to shoot pool." The coolers hold beer and eggs; the jukebox in the back plays "The Best of BB King."
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"----"My first hunt I killed a deer, and that began a long story," says Jane McPherson, who began hunting in her teens. "The first time I saw a deciduous swamp in full color I thought it was the most gorgeous thing I'd ever see, and it still is.
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"---In the Forties and Fifties, the Elliotts rented 50 cypress boats, $2 a day, at Elliott's Landing. Every Saturday at noon, March through June, the Elliotts offer a crawfish boil. Three generations enjoy the feast. Tyler, 3, is the future of the area.
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  • galmh "A Bridge to Nowhere"---Preservation. Development. Fairness. Justice. Progress. The battle is far from over. Pictured is an aerial view of the Upper Santee and Sparkleberry swamps, treasured by hunters, anglers and nature lovers.
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Gerry Melendez

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