State will restore Breaux Bridge's iconic bridge

When you think of Breaux Bridge, it’s hard not to automatically think of, what else, the bridge. With its tall square frame, the cables and wheels and counterweights, the 1955 structure is one of the most photographed objects in Acadiana. It’s no secret, though, that the familiar icon is in need of refinishing.
In a meeting late last month with the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), Mayor Rickey Calais got the welcome news that a full $1.2 million restoration of the bridge will be undertaken by the DOTD in 2017.
Long-term efforts have been underway to finance the $500,000 to $700,000 job of properly sandblasting and painting the cherished landmark. For the past four years, Save the Bridge has been working to keep the bridge and its crawfish art work looking good and gathering the money for refinishing.
After the first foot bridge was strung between two oak trees by Firmin Breaux in 1799 and it was referred to as Breaux’s bridge, the name of the town was permanently linked to the existence of the bridge. That bridge was replaced when Firmin’s son Agricole Breaux built the first vehicular bridge in 1817.
A succession of bridges followed and it shows how attached the town is to these structures that the last one was brought back to serve as a prominent feature in Parc des P de Pont Breaux.
When resident Anna Belle Dupuis Hoffman Krewitz ceremonially putted her old Model A Ford across to open the current bridge in 1955, a whopping $233,728 had been paid to the contractor for its construction. Now, 60 years later, the classic bridge has become as much a part of the town’s identity as the bayou itself. And its future just got a lot brighter.