Decorative pistols are part of the railing along the Calcasieu River Bridge in Lake Charles.
E.L. Erickson, center, state assistant bridge engineer, poses with Louis Duclose, right, and an unidentified man on the Huey Long-O.K. Allen Bridge shortly before it opened in 1940. The fleur-de-lis railing decorations had a silvery finish, though they were later painted orange along with the rest of the bridge.
This is one of the fleur-de-lis symbols that decorated the Huey Long-O.K. Allen Bridge in Baton Rouge from its opening in 1940 until the bridge railing was removed during a widening project in the late 1980s. The symbols were not put back on the bridge, and retired bridge inspector Joseph Smith saved several of them.
A drawing of the proposed bridge over the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles, including depictions of the crossed pistols used to decorate the railing. The proposal to name it the Lafitte Bridge was not adopted.
Many of the fleur-de-lis symbols on the Huey Long-O.K. Allen Bridge were lost due to accidents or fell off because of vibrations from passing railroad trains.
The bridge on Robinson Street in Bogalusa is decorated with cast iron pine cones as tribute to the lumber industry that once prospered there.
Joe T. Smith, who worked in bridge maintenance for DOTD before he retired, had one of the crossed pistols used to adorn the Calcasieu River Bridge painted gold and mounted on a plaque.
Decorative pistols are part of the railing along the Calcasieu River Bridge in Lake Charles.
E.L. Erickson, center, state assistant bridge engineer, poses with Louis Duclose, right, and an unidentified man on the Huey Long-O.K. Allen Bridge shortly before it opened in 1940. The fleur-de-lis railing decorations had a silvery finish, though they were later painted orange along with the rest of the bridge.
This is one of the fleur-de-lis symbols that decorated the Huey Long-O.K. Allen Bridge in Baton Rouge from its opening in 1940 until the bridge railing was removed during a widening project in the late 1980s. The symbols were not put back on the bridge, and retired bridge inspector Joseph Smith saved several of them.
Katheryn Hannon asked Curious Louisiana: “What happened to the crossed pistols that adorned the old Mississippi River bridge in Baton Rouge?” It turns out, she was thinking of the wrong bridge, but that’s an easy mistake to make in Louisiana, particularly concerning bridges of a certain age.
Around the middle of the 20th century, Louisiana bridge designers were interested in more than getting you across waterways. They wanted you to enjoy the journey. Adley Cormier, advocacy chairman for the Calcasieu Parish Historical Preservation Society in Lake Charles, calls this the “picturesque bridge era.”
“Some of those designers had served in the Army and saw some of the European bridges, which were in many cases quite beautiful, and they said, ‘If we’re building a bridge here, why not cast something that looks beautiful and provides a little bit of visual relief.’”
The bridge on Robinson Street in Bogalusa is decorated with cast iron pine cones as tribute to the lumber industry that once prospered there.
So, they included ornamental touches. Pelicans — that classic Louisiana symbol — are depicted on many. The railing on Bogalusa’s Richmond Street bridge, built in 1949, has pine cones to honor the lumber industry that once prospered in the area. Smaller bridges in New Orleans were adorned with cast iron magnolias, Cormier said.
In the case of the bridge Hannon asked about, Baton Rouge's Huey Long-O.K. Allen Bridge (which handles both rail and U.S. 190 vehicular traffic), metal fleur-de-lis symbols adorned the railing when it opened in 1940. In 2009, Department of Transportation and Development official Brendan Rush told The Advocate that the fleur-de-lis decorations were welded onto the railing, but over time, corrosion and vibration from the railroad caused many to fall off. The symbols were taken off and not replaced during a DOTD renovation of the bridge in the late 1980s.
Many of the fleur-de-lis symbols on the Huey Long-O.K. Allen Bridge were lost due to accidents or fell off because of vibrations from passing railroad trains.
Joe T. Smith worked in bridge maintenance for DOTD at the time, and when he visited the bridge during that renovation, he saw thousands of the fleur-de-lis symbols in barrels. He picked up some as souvenirs and still has a couple.
"I don't what DOTD did with them," Smith said. "They're probably in a warehouse somewhere."
Joe T. Smith, who worked in bridge maintenance for DOTD before he retired, had one of the crossed pistols used to adorn the Calcasieu River Bridge painted gold and mounted on a plaque.
In Lake Charles, however, replicas of crossed flintlock derringer pistols were chosen to decorate the bridge built across the Calcasieu River in 1952, a design that pays homage to the pirates who presumably used such weapons in bygone days in southwest Louisiana. N.E. Lant, the state bridge engineer, actually wanted to name it the “Lafitte Bridge” after French privateer Jean Lafitte, who operated in the area.
That name option didn’t catch on, and it’s simply known as the Calcasieu River Bridge. But there are 5,286 sets of crossed pistols on the railing, which originally ran along the pedestrian walkway. When the bridge was incorporated into Interstate 10 in the early 60s, pedestrian access was eliminated to conform with Interstate highway rules.
A drawing of the proposed bridge over the Calcasieu River in Lake Charles, including depictions of the crossed pistols used to decorate the railing. The proposal to name it the Lafitte Bridge was not adopted.
The crossed pistols are so synonymous with the bridge that, when damage to the railing was repaired in 2013, new iron pistols were made to replace about 50 pairs of pistols that had been lost or damaged, according to a Lake Charles American Press story in 2013. DOTD continues to replace the pistols when they are damaged or lost, Cormier said.
Hannon, who moved to Baton Rouge four years ago, remembered her father remarking about the crossed pistols that he thought were on the U.S. 190 bridge.
“When I moved to Baton Rouge, I kept looking for the crossed pistols,” she said.
The confusion had one good result — a chance to remember when bridges were works of art.
Curious Louisiana connects readers with our newsroom's reporting. If you've got a question about something Louisiana-centric, ask us. You can reach the Curious Louisiana team at CuriousLouisiana@theadvocate.com.
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