Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

Breaux Bridge (French: le Pont-Breaux; pronounced: [ləpɔ̃bʁo]) a small city in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population is 8,139 as of the 2010 census. It is part of the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.

This community is called the "Crawfish Capital of the World", a designation obtained by former Speaker of the Louisiana House of Representatives Robert J. "Bob" Angelle. It is also known for its unusual listing of nicknames in its telephone directory.

History

Acadian pioneer Firmin Breaux arrived as a single person with Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil in early 1765 - probably with the family of Michel Trahan. The Acadians suffered many deaths between April and November, 1765, and some left with the priest, Fr. Jean Francois, to go to St. James Parish. A census of Attakapas dated April 25, 1766, lists Firmin at a place named Bayou Tortue. He left after this census and went to St. James where he is listed on the Sept, 14, 1769 Census of The Acadian Coast. In 1774, Firmin who by then was in Ascension Parish, LA, petitioned the Governor to allow him to return to Attakapas. This petition was approved and Firmin purchased land in the vicinity of the present-day city of Breaux Bridge from Jean François Ledée, a wealthy New Orleans merchant who had acquired the land as a French land grant approved by the Spanish during the waning years of the French administration for the Spanish. By 1774, Breaux's branding iron was registered, and by 1786 he was one of the largest property owners in the Bayou Teche country.

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. There are many different designs that each serve a particular purpose and apply to different situations. Designs of bridges vary depending on the function of the bridge, the nature of the terrain where the bridge is constructed and anchored, the material used to make it, and the funds available to build it.

Etymology

The Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word bridge to an Old English word brycg, of the same meaning. The word can be traced directly back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēw-. The word for the card game of the same name has a different origin.

History

The first bridges made by humans were probably spans of cut wooden logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support and crossbeam arrangement. Some early Americans used trees or bamboo poles to cross small caverns or wells to get from one place to another. A common form of lashing sticks, logs, and deciduous branches together involved the use of long reeds or other harvested fibers woven together to form a connective rope capable of binding and holding together the materials used in early bridges.