25 October 2001 - Mike Burr

For over a week leading up to the Mississippi/Louisiana border, the subject of the historical Vicksburg Bridge across the Mississippi River kept popping up. The obvious issue of staying off of I-20 and staying on Route 80 wasn’t a problem. One problem was the condition of the Vicksburg Bridge, which had been closed to vehicles and pedestrians, but not freight trains for 3 years. The real problem would become apparent after a little forward recon mission by Gary and I. Bureaucracy kicked in and the status of runners crossing the bridge was a problem for days, in fact wasn’t resolved in it’s entirety until the Flag Run was at the eastern end of the bridge.

I first suspected something was rotten in state of Vicksburg when I was asked to add the Vicksburg Bridge Commission and Warren County, Mississippi to our insurance policy. We had already visited Ground Zero in New York, transited several major metropolitan centers east of the Mighty Mississip’, and managed not to run over any wayward runners. None of this had required "special" consideration. I couldn’t imagine what would warrant this request. Perhaps there was a troll living under the bridge? The insurance issue was an easy fix. I was told that only one person would be allowed to run with the Flag. I had assured our insurance agent that if there were any liability issues, I would carry the Flag. It was only a few miles and our only other option was to carry the Flag while running in place in the RV on I-20. Besides, I managed to get our entire group of runners to Ground Zero, how hard could it be to cross the Mississippi? I was in for a real lesson.

Gary and I decided we needed to forward deploy to the Louisiana side of the bridge to get their half of the story. As referenced in the Louisiana diary, the World Bar became our outpost for a few hours while we awaited the Flag. This place turned out to be a gold mine for a history lesson about the Vicksburg Bridge. After adapting our best "Looseeanna" accents, Gary and I began to make friends with the locals. I think our cover was blown in the first five minutes when I opened the laptop. Bottled beer was one dollar, the juke box had some tunes I recognized, and the folks took us in like their long lost children. After scrawling our Flagrun logo on the wall and ceiling, we settled in for some fact finding.

Turns out we were in the company of Dave "Sly Running Fox". This man was a local legend as was his 80 year old mother. His mother had been a passenger in one of the first cars to cross the Vicksburg Bridge when it opened in 1930. She also had been leading the fight to re-open the bridge to pedestrians and vehicular traffic for the past three years. Dave put me on the phone with his sweet mother and she began my history lesson. It goes something like this:

Warren County, Mississippi owns the bridge and signed a 99 year lease with a railroad company in 1930. To the tune of one million dollars per year, or so I’m told. Two thirds of the bridge is located in the state of Louisiana. Three years ago, the bridge commission decided to close the bridge to all traffic except for freight trains. This caused a serious problem for the folks in Delta, Louisiana, the majority of whom work across the river in Vicksburg. Now the good residents of Delta have to travel an additional seven miles to work. Doesn’t sound like much. Here’s the kicker. The freight trains tend to be a bit on the long side. While they are crossing the mighty Mississip’, half the town of Delta can’t head south to use the I-20 bridge. I thought this type of bickering went away along time ago. I was wrong. A while back, the I-20 bridge was closed for major maintenance. The Vicksburg bridge was opened to traffic by the aforementioned commission. The mayor of Delta and the Louisiana Troopers met the westbound traffic with a friendly little roadblock. So much for westbound traffic that day.

So, armed with at least the Louisiana side of the story, Gary and I packed up and headed eastbound across the Mississip’, on the I-20 bridge of course. We assured the patrons of The World Bar that we’d run the Flag by in tribute. Plus we wanted to make sure the Mayor of Delta and his troopers would let us "pass go" without paying $200. Once on the Vicksburg side, we were reunited with Mike Cummings and the Mississippi team. Quite a large crowd had gathered along with some media. I guess everyone wanted to see if the Commission was going to allow Old Glory to pass on the forbidden bridge. We were met by the Bridge Commissioner who obviously was in charge... and not smiling very much. He allowed all the runners, some from Team Mississippi, some from Team Louisiana, and a few local dignitaries to run the bridge. We all had to sign waivers, which in my opinion were worthless, but hey, HE’S the boss man. We crossed the Mighty Mississip’ at sunset with the wind blowing briskly from the south... on the infamous, closed Vicksburg Bridge. Thanks to Mississippi State Coordinator, Mike Cummings, and the Vicksburg Commissioner (lawyer) who ran the final leg, the crossing was flawless.

Perhaps this issue will be resolved soon. In the meantime, if I were king of Louisiana, I’d tax the heck out of the "State of Warren County" in the Great State of Mississippi. Now you know the "rest of the story."

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