ON THE COVER
With the lowering of the great lift span and the passing of a four-unit freight Diesel hauling 7,000 tons of freight in a 102-car train, the Southern Railway's new Tombigbee River Bridge was officially opened to traffic. No one had ever seen a train this size on the Mobile division before; and its appearance during the bridge dedication was as symbolic as the smashing of a bottle of champagne on the bow of a sea-going vessel at the launching. It signified the breaking of a traffic bottleneck on the Mobile division. For the story of the new bridge--and of the "bottleneck" bridge it replaced.
