The Horace Wilkinson bridge over the Mississippi river is always very busy especially during a football Saturday night. The Louisiana Legislature considered naming it for both Norman E. Lant and Horace Wilkinson, Horace Wilkinson Jr. and Horace Wilkinson III in 1968.
STAFF PHOTO BY JOHN BALLANCE
Three Wilkinsons plus one Lant equals one Mississippi River bridge.
That was the original equation for the $46 million, cantilever "New Mississippi River Bridge" after it opened on to Interstate 10 traffic April 10, 1968.
Originally, the Louisiana State Legislature considered placing two names on the bridge that year, with one name representing three people and the other commemorating a single person. In the end, only one name was placed on the bridge: Horace Wilkinson.
A crowd gathered for the opening of the Horace Wilkinson Bridge on April 10, 1968.
FILE PHOTO BY ART KLEINER
Who was Norman E. Lant?
Still, Ernie Smithling is correct in pointing out that state lawmakers considered giving the bridge a double moniker.
"I once read where the bridge was going to be named for the three Horace Wilkinsons in West Baton Rouge Parish and a guy named Norman Lant," the Walker resident said. "If this is true, who was Norman Lant?"
Norman E. Lant served as the chief engineer for the Highways Department, designing most of the then-5,000 bridges that spanned Louisiana's waterways. And Horace Wilkinson? That was the name shared by a patriarch, his son and grandson, all of whom were Port Allen businessmen who collectively served 54 years in the Louisiana Legislature.
However, in the months leading to the bridge's opening, a legislative tug-of-war played out as to how the bridge would be named.
Norman E. Lant's gravestone in Roselawn Memorial Gardens in Baton Rouge.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY FINDAGRAVE.COM
None of this mattered much to Baton Rougeans who referred to it — and still know it today — as the "New Bridge," the "Old Bridge" being the U.S. 190 crossing.
Fifty-five years later, and it's still "new." But that might change with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development's plans to relieve Baton Rouge's interstate traffic by constructing another bridge connecting La. 1 south of Plaquemine and La. 30 near St. Gabriel.
New and old have names
While the "Old Bridge" was named for Louisiana's legendary governor-turned-senator Huey P. Long, the "New Bridge" brings the story back to the legislative battle.
Earlier in 1968, members of the East Baton Rouge Parish legislative delegation proposed that the bridge be named for Lant. Though he didn't design the "New Bridge," he did, indeed, design most of the bridges throughout the state, including the Huey P. Long "Old Bridge."
Horace Wilkinson Sr. served in the Louisiana Legislature served in the Louisiana Legislature for 26 years in the early 20th century.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ANN WILKINSON
Lant died on Sept. 27, 1967, which legally qualified him to be the bridge's namesake since state law prohibited state buildings and bridges being named for living persons. The Wilkinsons also qualified.
Then, in April 1968, J.E. Jumonville Sr., of Ventress, who was a then state senator-elect for the 13th Senatorial District, announced that he would introduce a bill to name the bridge for the Wilkinsons when he entered office that May.
The 13th District later would become the 17th District, which included West Baton Rouge Parish, where the Wilkinson family lived. Jumonville held the office for eight years before being succeeded by his son J.E. Jumonville Jr., who served until 1993.
A case for both
An April 12, 1968, article in Baton Rouge's State-Times quoted a family member in support of Jumonville saying, "the Wilkinson family are direct descendants of Gen. James Wilkinson, co-governor of the Louisiana Territory with William C.C. Claiborne."
Horace Wilkinson Jr. served in 16 years in the Louisiana Legislature.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ANN WILKINSON
"Lant came to Louisiana in 1922," the article continued. "He was a native of Indiana. Lant set up the first bridge section in the State Department of Highways, then rose to fame during the road-building heyday of Huey P. Long."
The article added that Lant retired from the Highways Department in 1955 but was recalled to the department in 1957, where, as an urban engineer, he had a hand in designing the state's most modern highways.
Lant and all three Wilkinsons are buried in Baton Rouge's Rose Lawn Memorial Park. Though other bridge names were floated — including Col. Elias Beauregard, who laid out the Baton Rouge's Beauregard Town, and Port Allen namesake and former Gov. Henry Watkins Allen — Lant and the Wilkinsons remained the main contenders.
Then came June, when a compromise was struck for a hyphenated solution — the Wilkinson-Lant Bridge.
McKeithen weighs in
The senate passed the bill, but that wouldn't be the last of it.
"John McKeithen was the governor, and I remember well being at Poplar Grove, our home, and seeing his car drive up in the driveway," said Ann Wilkinson, great-granddaughter of Horace Wilkinson Sr. and niece of Horace Wilkinson III.
Horace Wilkinson III served in the Louisiana Legislature from 1952 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1064.
PROVIDED PHOTO BY ANN WILKINSON
Ann Wilkinson is now president of Poplar Grove Planting Co. in Port Allen, succeeding the three Horace Wilkinsons — each of whom presided over the company.
"Gov. McKeithen came by to tell my father that he was going to support the name 'Horace Wilkinson' for the bridge," Ann Wilkinson said. "He just wanted my dad to know that."
Ann Wilkinson was a senior at University High School at the time, having to cross the river by way of either the "Old Bridge" or the city of Baton Rouge ferry to get there.
"They didn't open the bridge until the month before I graduated from high school," she said, laughing.
Still, she remembers paying attention to the legislative bridge discussions at the time, and McKeithen stayed true to his word to her father.
"The Senate went along with Gov. McKeithen and the House today and named the $46 million Mississippi River Bridge here the Horace Wilkinson Bridge, deleting the name of Norman E. Lant," reporter Jack Lord wrote in the July 10, 1968, edition of State-Times.
Workers for American Bridge put together the roadway for the Horace Wilkinson Bridge over the Mississippi River in the 1960s.
FILE PHOTO
A variety of legislators praised Lant in the story, but their final vote honored the Wilkinson family, alone. Yet it was an honor that went unnoticed for years.
"And you know, it's interesting, because there never was a 'Horace Wilkinson' sign put up on the bridge," Ann Wilkinson said.
That is, until 2010, when she received a call from former Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, who was then Speaker Pro Tempore of the Louisiana House of Representatives.
"She said, 'We need to get a name on the bridge,'" Ann Wilkinson said. "She and Rep. Regina Barrow introduced a measure — it wasn't a bill — to put the name on the bridge."
Today, "Horace Wilkinson" signs are placed on the railings in both directions.
"So, 42 years after it opened, the name was finally on the bridge," Ann Wilkinson said.