The Shober Bridge on the 1882 Sanborn Map of the North Ward

 

This section of the 1882 Sanborn Map shows the Shober Bridge (the two small hatch marks)across the Western North Carolina Railway line in its current location on Ellis Street near adjacent to the Salisbury Graded School. Note the property slightly to the south of the bridge, owned by F. E. Shober.  This is Col. Francis Shober for whom the bridge was named. Francis E. Shober served as a congressman in or around 1868, just 10 years after the Shober Bridge was opened.  At this time, the bridge was an entirely wooden structure and much narrower than today's two-lane paved bridge but takes the same angle that it does today across the railway ravine.  Shober Bridge was split in half and widened in the early 1900's.