Antique Road Show To Commemorate Causeway Centennial In LBI

One hundred years ago this weekend the first cars drove across the Barnegat Bay onto Long Beach Island on the original wooden planked causeway.

On Saturday, to commemorate the opening of the first automobile bridge from Manahawkin to Ship Bottom on June 20, 1914 the Long Beach Island Historical Association is organizing a day long celebration beginning with a convoy of antique and classic cars from Barnegat Light to Beach Haven.

Participants can register where the event starts, at the Barnegat Light Museum at Fifth Street and Central Avenue, Barnegat Light, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. on the day of the motorcade.

The registration fee of $10 may be deducted as a charitable donation to the association. The first 50 registrants will receive a special centennial commemorative ribbon. Patriotic decorations on the cars are encouraged.

The vehicles will remain on display at that location until the procession begins 11 a.m. It will end in Beach Haven at Veterans Bicentennial Park on Engleside Avenue, where the cars will also be on display from 12:30 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Inside the Long Beach Island Historical Museum across from the park historian Jeannette Lloyd will host a talk about the 1914 bridge and celebrations at 3 p.m..
There is also an ongoing display in the museum on the bridge opening.

Lloyd’s late husband and historian, John Bailey Llyod, described the 1914 event in his book “Eighteen Miles of History on Long Beach Island”

“It was a pleasant Saturday morning when the 103 beribboned and decorated motor vehicles, which had been congregating since dawn in Manahawkin, began their stately procession across the new causeway,” he wrote. Adding, “The bay was filled with small boats. Horns and claxons blew. Whistles tooted and engines backfired.”

As the procession went down the island to Beach Haven, “Every house on the parade route was hung with flags, flowers and bunting as the long line of cars proceeded south to Spray Beach and Beach Haven for the greatest celebration since the arrival of the railroad twenty-eight years earlier,” wrote Lloyd.

For those interested in joining the vehicle procession, registration can also be done prior to Saturday by calling Ron Marr at 609-492-3988 or e-mailing lbimarr@gmail.com.