City: Oregon Inlet, NC

Category: Tours & Attractions

Address: NC 12

Description: The view from the crest of the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge has to be the most beautiful vista on the Outer Banks. If only there was a place to pull over and enjoy it more fully! As you drive over you get a sweeping glimpse of this infamous inlet and all its surrounding shoals, sandbars, and spoil islands. Sea captains call this the most dangerous inlet on the East Coast—and with good reason. Since 1960 at least 30 lives and an equal number of boats have been lost at Oregon Inlet. The current through the inlet is dangerously swift and reckless, and shoals form alarmingly fast, causing boats to run aground. The only outlet to the sea in the 140 miles between Cape Henry, in Virginia Beach, and Hatteras Inlet south of Hatteras Island, Oregon Inlet lies between Bodie Island and Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge. It is the primary passage for commercial and recreational fishing boats based along the northern Outer Banks. Even though it’s often dredged, the inlet is sometimes impassable by deep-draft vessels. Although a safe inlet is crucial to the commercial and recreational fishing industries, federal officials have refused to authorize or fund construction of jetties, rock walls that some scientists say would stabilize the evershallowing inlet. Oregon Inlet was created during a hurricane in September 1846, the same storm that opened Hatteras Inlet between Hatteras Village and Ocracoke Island. It was named for the side-wheeler Oregon, the first ship to pass through the inlet. In 1964 the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge was built across the inlet. This two-lane span finally connected Hatteras Island and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore with the northern Outer Banks beaches. Before the bridge was built, travelers relied on ferry boats to carry them across Oregon Inlet. Hurricane-force winds blew a dredge barge into the bridge in 1990, knocking out a center section of the span. No one was hurt, but the more than 5,000 permanent residents of Hatteras Island were cut off from the rest of the world for four months before workers could completely repair the bridge. Wear and tear due to time, use, and climate conditions has taken its toll on this bridge. In 1997 the Bonner Bridge was recommended to be repaired and replaced by 2004. The project costs more than the North Carolina DOT can afford. Its budget would be completely wiped out for several years if North Carolina footed the bill. Federal funds have already been allocated to build a new bridge; however, approval for the project has been held up many times. For the latest information on building a new bridge, go to www.replacethebridgenow.com. Four-wheel-drive vehicles can exit NC 12 on the northeast side of the inlet and drive along the beach, even beneath the Bonner Bridge, around the inlet. Fishing is permitted along the catwalks of the bridge and on the beach. Free parking and restrooms are available at the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center. There are also parking and portable toilets on the southern end of the bridge. This trip is especially beautiful at sunset or sunrise.