By William Kelly
Few people today remember the old “Rickety Bridge” on the Somers Point-Longport Boulevard, but those who do can still hear the rumblings of the timber planks when a vehicle drove over them, especially late at night when all else was quiet.
Originally built in 1916, when the road opened as CR20 (Atlantic County Route 20) , it was renamed State Route 152 when the New Jersey Department of Transportation took over the road in the mid-1960s since the Somers Point-Ocaen City causeway runs parallel is Route 52.
Many people know it from driving the road to Mothers, or the Dunes or Margate after the bars closed in Somers Point at 2 a.m.
The old rickety bridge ran across Broad Thorofare, used mainly by clammers, fishermen and recreational boaters, but since boaters have the right of way, the drawbridge was operated by a bridge tender who had a little shack on the bridge.
It was a dangerous bridge. Six people died in bridge accidents between 1976 and 1986, and I personally witnessed a bad accident involving a Corvette Stingray from out of town.
It passed me and hit the bridge at full speed. I saw him spin out of control and crash into the wood guardrail. I looked to see if he was okay as I passed him.
In those pre-cellphone days, I had to drive a mile or so to Somers Point for a phone booth to call the accident in to authorities.
The most notable night in the history of the bridge came on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 1986, when Kathy Steel, of the Steel’s Fudge family of Atlantic City, got off work late at Harry’s Inn on Maryland Avenue in Somers Point. She was a waitress training as a cook, and later, recalled the most significant night of her life.
She said it was cold and raining as she was heading home, but when she drove her new 1985 Chevy Chevette onto the bridge the icy surface made her apply the brakes. She went into a spin, drove through the wood guardrail, and her car plundged into the icy cold bay waters.
She knew she couldn’t open the door, so keeping her cool, she cranked the window open, and tried to crawl out the window.
Lucky for her a number of other drivers witnessed her accident and pulled over, including Joel Fogel, who was returning to his Somers Point home from visiting his father and brother in Margate. His teenage son, Bill, was with him.
Two other cars also pulled over, one driven by Charles “Lefty” Devers and following him was his brother-in-law Tim Kunik, then 20 of Longport, who also pulled over.
All three men knew each other from having served together as lifeguards on the Margate Beach Patrol, so they were trained in handling emergency situations.
Fogel, who was 44 at the time and is now in his 80s, still recalls the incident vividly.
Acting quickly, Fogel got some rope he kept in his car trunk and wrapped it around Devers’ waist, who waded into the water as Kathy Steel, then 30 years old, bobbed to the surface. He grabbed her as Fogel, his son and Kunik pulled her to safety.
While his son held a flashlight and Fogel pulled on the rope, he later said, “We were cursing her out. We wanted her to get mad to survive.”
There is no doubt in her mind she should have drowned, and it would have been the seventh death on the bridge if the three lifeguards weren’t on the scene and acted quickly to save her.
And it was no coincidence that Joel Fogel kept rope handy in his car as he was quite the adventurer. Besides being a Margate lifeguard, Fogel was a member of the elite Explorers Club of New York, explored the origins of the Amazon River, and wrote about the Nicaraguan Civil War for the New York Times. He also rode a BMW R60 motorcycle from Alaska to the tip of South America, a trip on which he met his future wife Coty in Mexico. Fogel has an official captain’s license and is known to his friends as Captain Fogel.
A few days after the accident, Steel met with her rescuers at a Somers Point restaurant for dinner together. President Ronald Reagan sent them letters of commendation shortly thereafter.
Steel and Fogel met at the scene 30 years later, when Steel said, “I did some research and apparently only 20 percent of the people who go off into the water survive. Most people panic so much, but I don’t think I have been that calm since.”
While Kathy Steel narrowly escaped death, the sixth and last person to die on the bridge was a woman whose car was caught in the middle of the bridge as it was engulfed in flames. The bridge was under repair at the time, but while the workers were on a lunch break the fire broke out, and quickly spread among the heavy wood planks and black tar. While her son escaped, the woman couldn’t and died in the fire.
That’s where Delores Cooper comes into the story. The former Atlantic County freeholder and New Jersey State Assemblywomen was a popular politician who secured millions of dollars in government funding to replace the bridge.
Like the Somers Point-Ocean City causeway, the old drawbridge was replaced by a new bridge built high enough for boats to pass under them, and the new bridge is named the Delores Cooper Bridge after her. A short section of the rickety bridge was retained and converted into a fishing pier. Her daughter Alisa later said that she considered that her greatest achievement.
