The Bridge That Kept Time at Sunset Beach + Your NC Coast Weekend Guide

Hey friends! This week, we're heading to Sunset Beach for the story of a little wooden bridge that kept time on the Southern Brunswick Islands for over fifty years — and the three women who refused to let it disappear. We've also got your beach conditions, a coastal spotlight, and events from the Wilmington Region all the way up to Manteo for the weekend of May 7–10.

This week is a mixed bag along the coast — Thursday could bring showers and cooler temps, Friday clears up nicely (best window for outdoor plans), Saturday's looking like the best beach day with partly sunny skies and a chance of scattered showers, and Sunday brings the rain back just in time for Mother's Day brunch (honestly, perfect timing for a long, lazy meal indoors). Water temps are in the upper 60s — chilly at first splash but doable for a wade. Surf is mellow in the 1–3 ft range. Keep a light layer handy and a backup plan if you're heading to outdoor events.

If you came to Sunset Beach before 2010, you probably remember the feeling of it. You'd snake through the marsh, pass the little shops and low-slung houses, and then everything stopped at the water's edge. Ahead of you was not some soaring concrete causeway, but a one-lane wooden pontoon swing bridge floating low over the water, just wide enough for a single line of cars and trucks to creep across. It felt less like infrastructure and more like a checkpoint between the regular world and somewhere softer and slower.

The deck rattled under your tires as you rolled toward the center span, the planks worn silver-gray by salt and sun. On either side, the marsh grass rustled and the Intracoastal flickered with light. Local kids knew to check the time before they got in line. During the day in the summer, traffic stopped every hour on the hour for ten full minutes while the bridge swung open to let boats through. Hit it wrong, and you'd sit there with the engine idling, sea breeze coming through the windows, watching the span slowly pivot away from the mainland.

The bridge had quiet beginnings. In 1955, a man named Mannon Gore bought the island then known as Bald Beach for $55,000 and renamed it Sunset Beach. A WWII Coast Guard veteran with no formal engineering degree but an instinct for how things worked, Gore built the very first bridge in 1958 and operated it himself in the early years — sometimes coming out of his nearby house in a bathrobe to swing it open when a motorist honked. NCDOT took over in 1961 and built the floating pontoon version most people remember.

Somewhere in the shuffle of cars and gulls and boat wakes, the bridgetender was the quiet center of it all. He worked out of a tiny shack perched by the span — the Tender House — checking the clock, watching the tide, listening to captains call in over the radio to see if they'd make the opening or have to anchor and wait.

Locals grumbled about the wait times, but they also knew the truth: the bridge was the gatekeeper that kept Sunset Beach slow. While other parts of the coast grew taller and busier, this three-mile island stayed mostly low and quiet, buffered by a crossing that simply refused to be rushed.

Then, on November 11, 2010, the new Mannon C. Gore Bridge opened, rising in a clean arc over the water. From a practical standpoint, it made sense: faster access, no more holiday backups, no more hourly interruption. But for people who had been coming here for years, it was emotional. The old pontoon bridge was one of the last of its kind on the entire East Coast — a low, floating throwback in an era of concrete and steel.

Instead of scrapping it, Sunset Beach did something rare: they saved it. Three local women — Karen Dombrowski, Ann Bokelman, and Chris Wilson — formed the Old Bridge Preservation Society in the summer of 2010 and, after a long fight, bought the bridge from English Construction for one dollar. In early 2011, the ramps, center span, and Tender House were tugged to dry land and tucked into a shady spot just off Shoreline Drive West. The Tender House opened as a museum in 2014, and in 2019 the group officially renamed itself the Old Bridge Historical Society.

Today, that same shack where the bridgetender once watched the tides holds the original desk, the radio, the boat logs, and stories from the bridge's working days — alongside artifacts from the Civil War blockade runner Vesta, which ran aground at what was then called Bald Beach on January 11, 1864 and now lies buried beneath the sand under the Sunset Beach Pier just down the road.

When you walk out onto the preserved span now, it's quiet. You can run your hand along the rail and imagine the rumble of engines, the smell of hot brakes, kids in the back seat asking how much longer until the ocean. Above you, cars glide across the new bridge in a steady, efficient flow. But down here, time still moves the old way — slower, with room to notice the marsh, the sky, and the way this tiny town chose to honor the thing that kept it that way.

In a lot of places, the old bridge would have been torn down and forgotten. At Sunset Beach, it became a story worth telling — about patience, about pace, and about the people who loved an aging, one-lane, wooden pontoon swing bridge enough to keep it around.

This week's spotlight is Inlet View Bar & Grill in Shallotte, sitting right where the Shallotte River meets the Intracoastal Waterway. It's a true family-run spot — open since 2009 in its current form, with roots going all the way back to 1978 when the original little grill, motel, and marina sat in the same place. Today you'll find Sam and Timmy running the show alongside their daughters, with mom Amy table-hopping and showing off her grandson. Grab a seat upstairs for the panoramic view from the deck, sample Mama's hushpuppies (sweet or spicy), and dig into local seafood pulled straight off Timmy's boats. Live music on the weekends, sunsets that genuinely can't be beat, and the unofficial motto says it all: where the road ends, the fun begins.

WILMA Dash & Health Fest — May 7–9 at Wilmington Convention Center (Wilmington Region). North Carolina's only all-female 5K, starting and finishing inside the Convention Center's Expo Hall. Stay after the race for a health fest with local wellness exhibitors, food, drinks, and awards — all proceeds benefit the Alzheimer's Association NC.

Sunset Beach Waterway Market — Thursday, May 7, 9 AM–1 PM at Sunset Beach Town Park (Southern Beaches). Local crafters, artists, fresh produce, pottery, and woodcrafts right by the Intracoastal. Runs every Thursday through September 24 — easy to pair with a beach walk or a stop at the Old Bridge Museum just down the road.

17th Annual KidsFest — Friday, May 8, 9:30 AM–12:30 PM at Roanoke Island Festival Park, Manteo (Outer Banks). Free morning of music, games, crafts, and play activities for young children, hosted by the Children & Youth Partnership for Dare County.

Nags Head Woods 5K & Walk in the Woods — Saturday, May 9 in Nags Head (Outer Banks). A Mother's Day weekend run through The Nature Conservancy's Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve — one of the most unique natural settings on the OBX.

Artrageous Kids Art Festival — Saturday, May 9, 10 AM–3 PM at Dowdy Park, Nags Head (Outer Banks). Free family-friendly festival with hands-on art activities, live music, dance performances, an artisan market, and food vendors.

Manteo Downtown Market Opening Day — Saturday, May 9 on the Manteo Waterfront (Outer Banks). The Town of Manteo's beloved Saturday market kicks off its 2026 season, running every Saturday through September 12.

This week on the blog, we're heading to the Crystal Coast to spend some time in Swansboro — the "Friendly City by the Sea" — where a walkable historic waterfront, easy small-town pace, and ferry access to Bear Island make it one of the most underrated stops on the NC coast. From paddling the marshes and channels to waterfront seafood at spots like Saltwater Grill, this guide will give you plenty of ideas for your next Crystal Coast escape.

See you next Thursday! 🌊

— The Hey Coastal Team