San Joaquin County, California Bridges: Woodward Ferry across the Middle River

April 2014 (37.92028 Degrees, -121.51639 Degrees) Woodward Ferry

The only way to get onto Woodward Island is by taking a ferry across the Middle River, which runs six days a week. I previously mentioned another cable ferry that carries vehicles from Eight Mile Road onto Venice Island. These ferries mostly carry tractors because the islands are farmland (they also have pipelines that require maintenance). These are the last ferries still operated by San Joaquin County. They're expensive to maintain and operate and they can also be dangerous. A recent article in the San Joaquin Record suggests that they may be replaced by bridges fairly soon.

A submerged cable is connected to the ramp on each side of the river and a winch pulls the cable up to the water's surface as it drags the loaded barge across the river. Occasionally, a boat will pass too close to the ferry and break the cable. The Woodward Ferry has the county bridge number (29C0447).

San Joaquin County, California Bridges: Woodward Ferry across the Middle River by Mark Yashinsky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.