Gary Boswick was Rotarian of the Day and introduced John Warren, who some of us knew for his “Road Warrior” column in The Virginian-Pilot.  Since leaving the Virginian-Pilot several years ago, John has worked for the Mariner’s Museum. 

 

John also wrote Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel published by Arcadia Publishing as part of its Images of America series. It is a 200 page book whose numerous pictures chronicle the building of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT), whose original span opened in 1964 as one of the world's engineering marvels. Before the tunnel, travelers would need to take a ferry to get to the Eastern Shore and it was only because of a Virginia Beach politician insistence that the Southside be connected with the Eastern Shore that it happened.

 

John’s presentation, just like the book, featured photographs of the building process of the CBBT.  Among the tales told by John was of two brothers, one of whom had the dream to be the first to cross as many bridges as possible He had a sign in his car “First Man.” The brother accompanied the “First Man” on all the trips and believed that he was, in fact, the first to cross. The two brothers had a falling out and didn’t speak to one another for years. Another tale was about the only person who ever saw the underside of the CBBT — a guy flying a crop duster. 

 

Among the pictures in the book were a couple of shots of the interior of the CBBT’s administration building, which today looks just as it did in 1960s when the CBBT opened. John explained that the administration is diligent with the revenues from the bridge tunnel and maintain the equipment in excellent shape.

 

Two of the big challenges faced by Warren was identifying the people in the pictures, many of which were not labeled, and without expertise in bridge building getting the engineering details straight.

 

 

President Sally Hartman rang the bell promptly, called us to order, and asked the club to observe a moment of silence for member Glenn Allen Scott, who passed away suddenly the day before, and former member Pete Williamson, who passed away recently.  Both will be missed.  

 

Sigur Whitaker then led us in song accompanied by Frank Whitman on piano.  We sang “The Four Way Test” and the second verse of “America”; we pledged allegiance to the flag; and Joe New delivered a lovely invocation.

Our school this week was Jaycox Elementary.  Ed Lilly gave the visitation report. I was introduced as your humble scribe.  

 

Visitation: Mark Johnson enthusiastically introduced guests as follows:

 

A book was presented to Jaycox Elementary in John’s name and the raffle was won by a member who got his ticket through the Perfect Table program.