Manpower up the bridge
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
SEPT. 6, 2019 | Some stories are worth remembering. Maron Buice of Sugar Hill was instrumental in making sure funds were secured to build the Georgia Highway 20 bridge over the Norfolk-Southern rail tracks in Sugar Hill. That came after five teenage girls from Forsyth County were killed in 1971 in a car-train accident at the intersection, known as Magnum Crossing.
Last week the bridge was formally named for Maron Sidney Buice in a ceremony at the Sugar Hill E Center, after ribbon cutting at the bridge. But the honor was a little slow in coming for Mr. Buice. He told the crowd at last week’s ceremony:
“We got the bridge done in 1975, and people wanted to have put my name put on it. I said nah, let’s wait awhile, for it might look like I would be doing that to get elected again. I wanted to wait a while, but didn’t mean to wait 40 years,” he told those gathered for the honor. Mr. Buice served for 16 years as a county commissioner, the record for modern office-holders in Gwinnett County.
He continued reminiscing to the audience: “Things are promised when you are running for office, you know. They say you had to have a platform. My main thing was to get that crossings in Sugar Hill signalized, and to try to get a bridge.
“First thing I did, I talked to Department of Transportation Commissioner Tom Moreland. He helped me get the first signals there at Sugar Hill crossing. He said ‘I think I can get federal help,’ and he did. It would have been hard to do without him.”
When funds were available for building the bridge, it turned out to be the most expensive road project the county had ever undertaken. It was completed in 1975, and Buice was planning a ribbon cutting.
“I called Larry Bailey of Buford, who had this old 1930 Packard automobile he had restored. The car was a beautiful two seater convertible, with cloth top, just great for parades. I asked Larry if he would take some of us to be the first to ride across that bridge in it. I called Tom Moreland (to ride in the car), along with Lewis Canup of the Transportation Department and Bill Atkinson, who was then the chairman of the Gwinnett commission.
“So before the program was to begin, we started out in the car at the bottom of the hill on the east side, and boy, were we happy, and I was proud of it. We got near the top of the bridge and the car just stopped running. I’ll never forget that. No one knew what to do. Tom and all of us were just sitting there. I motioned to a bunch of men nearby, and they came and pushed us over the hill, and then we got going down hill. About that time the car cranked up. So at the bottom of the bridge, Larry turned around the car and we went back across. Police were waiting for letting others cross. I said to them: ‘Y’all ready to open this thing?’ ‘Yeah, just give us that word.’ And I told them, ‘Let’s open it quick.’”
Next day, the Gwinnett Daily News featured those standby guys pushing that stalled 1930 Packard on that first trip over the bridge. What a story for a ceremonial opening of the bridge!
Congratulations, Maron, now 93. He’s living in Sugar Hill after living 10 years in Blue Ridge. Thanks for making Georgia Highway 20 at Sugar Hill safer with that bridge, and your making the first ride across it…..with some help from manpower.
- TO SEE a video taken by Ronnie Buice of the E-Center ceremony, click this link.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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