More than 80 years ago they told William Harris Hardy that it couldn't be built.
Hardy was a vice president of the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad and the thing that "couldn't be built" was a proposed 21-mile-long railroad bridge across swampy land and Lake Pontchartrain just north of New Orleans, La.
Hardy chose to ignore the doubters, and his railroad proceeded to build what was at the time the longest bridge in the world and is yet today a vital link in the Southern Railway System's NO&NE line, which runs between Meridian, Miss., and New Orleans.
Pontchartrain is the largest lake in Louisiana and the largest salt water lake in the world, with an area of some 630 square miles. When the bridge was first built, the approaches spanned some 12 miles of swampy ground on the south side of the lake and an additional three miles on the north end.
In November, 1884, the first passenger train crossed Pontchartrain Bridge on a trial run at a speed of 40 miles per hour. No doubt the proudest passenger on that train was Hardy himself. He had made his point.
By 1896, the wooden trestle over the swampy ground at both ends of the bridge had been replaced with earth fill, leaving the five and three - quarter miles of trestle that bridge the lake.
