Linda Hebert Todd

Author - Westlake, Louisiana

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The Bridge Over The River Of My Dreams

January 24, 2016 By Linda H. Todd Leave a Comment

bridge-pr2Back when we moved to Westlake, the only way we could get to Lake Charles was over a draw bridge located by the Port of Lake Charles on Shell Beach Drive. It seemed like every time we had to make a trip to Lake Charles, a tall ship would be coming down the waterway, and up would come the bridge sections to let it pass. Bridge back then, trains now. It’s never been easy getting out of Westlake.

The road on the Westlake side is abandoned now—a road to nowhere, if you will. After the new bridge was built, the only thing on that road was the city dump, and I don’t know if that’s even still there. I haven’t driven down there in years, so I can’t say one way or the other.

Construction on the new bridge began in 1949, as part of Highway 90, and was completed in 1952. Those were the early years of my high school career, and we had the children of bridge workers in our classes. They would come in, enroll, and then leave whenever their fathers finished whatever part of the bridge they were working on.

My schoolmates and I watched that bridge being built, and I, for one, am not afraid to cross it like many people are. We used to play on it. There were some who would walk to the top on the little walkway and slide to the bottom on flattened cardboard boxes. I won’t mention any names, but you know who you are.

The crossed pistols—5,286 of them—were reportedly placed there to commemorate the legends of Jean LaFitte that surrounded this area. After the bridge was opened to traffic, so many people were chipping the pistols out for mantel pieces and other decorations that they had to be constantly replaced to keep the handrails from collapsing.

Talk of replacing the bridge has been swirling around for years. It’s a part of my childhood, and I, for one, will hate to see it go.

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About Linda

Linda Hebert ToddLinda has completed her novel—Wild Justice, a crime story with a revenge theme, and has started another one set in Labrador and Louisiana. She writes all her stories in longhand, bringing to life the beautiful bayous of south Louisiana. Read more...

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Linda Hebert Todd, Author, Westlake, LA - Mystery Novel
Mystery Novel

Wild Justice

By Linda Hebert Todd

Keeley Chesson, a crime reporter for a city newspaper, is orphaned at age fourteen, courtesy of a sheriff's deputy who killed her parents and got away with it. Now, fourteen years later, the deaths of her parents still a mystery and the deputy now her town's police chief, tragedy again rocks her…

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Short Stories

Sidonie and the Loup-Garou and Other Stories from the Bayou

By Linda Hebert Todd

The short fiction in this book introduces the reader to an interesting assortment of characters. The lead story—Sidonie and the Loup-Garou—features a high school girl who learns it is a good idea to heed the warnings of her Cajun grandparents. The final tale—The Ghost and Sadie Stackpoole– solves…

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