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Main Road Into Goose Creek From 1900 Shows How Far Berkeley County Has Come

by Nikki Gaskins Campbell
Pictured: The bridge crossing the Goose Creek Reservoir around 1900 along Highway 52 From North Charleston to Goose Creek. (Via Berkeley County School District)

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C.–What a difference today makes! If one thing is certain, Berkeley County has come a long way in the last 100+ years.

If you need proof, just check out the above photo. Recognize it? Believe it or not, it’s the Goose Creek Bridge, the main road into Goose Creek at the time.  The year was around 1900, and it was a time when only horses served as the primary mode of transportation.

It wasn’t until eight years later (1908) that the first affordable car, Ford’s Model T, became available to the general public. Although it sold for about $850 at the time, that was still a lot of money for many Berkeley County residents back then.

Pictured: The color picture shows the bridge today, which spans seven lanes and has a sidewalk. Talk about growth! (Via Berkeley County School District)

 

To put things in perspective, $1 in 1900 is equal to $26.40 today. College tuition was much cheaper, too. Board at Clemson University for 40 weeks cost around $60 then and soap was just $0.25!

While most of us couldn’t imagine living during the start of the 20th century without our precious technology and social media, most of us would certainly welcome the low, low prices any day–just not the average yearly wage which was less than $500 back then.

The bridge was torn down and replaced by a larger covered one shortly after the Revolution. A later covered bridge, built in 1851, was 200 ft. long, on brick piers, with a plank floor and cypress shingle roof. It was burned in 1865 by Confederates attempting to delay Federals in the area. Another bridge here built some years after the Civil War, was uncovered, with a simple railing. By 1925 a new U.S. Highway 52 included a bridge.

A historic marker now stands at the intersection of Naval Ammunition Depot Road (NAD Road) and The Oaks Avenue.

Today, Highway 52 remains one of the most highly traveled roads in Berkeley County. The photo below shows the highway in Goose Creek just before you enter North Charleston.

Highway 52 is a pretty long road. It passes through Goose Creek, Moncks Corner, Bonneau, and St. Stephen before continuing all the way through Portal, North Dakota, on the Canadian border, where it continues as Saskatchewan Highway 39.

This passageway has been in use since before the Civil War, and it has grown right along with Berkeley County.

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