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The James F |
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| Byrnes Bridge was built in 1956 |
| It was a two-lane toll swing bridge constructed at a bad news of $1.5 million that opened the island to automobile vehicles from the mainland. The swing Hilton Head bridge was hit by a barge in 1974 which shutdown all vehicle travel to the island until the Army Corps of Engineers built and manned a pontoon bridge while the bridge was being repaired |
| The swing bridge was replaced by the fashionable four-lane bridge in 1982. |
These events helped to polarize the community, and the Chamber of Commerce started drumming up block for the Town to incorporate as a municipality. After the Four Seasons Resort (now Hilton Head Resort) was built along William Hilton Parkway (derisively referred to as "stack-a-shacks" by some Town residents), a referendum of incorporation was passed in May of 1983. Hilton Head Island had become a town.
