Horace King  The Great Bridge Builder

Horace King was an engineer, architect and bridge builder.  King, an enslaved Black man, was born in 1807 in Chesterfield District, South Carolina. ,He learned to read and write as a young boy and became  proficient at carpentry and mechanics by his early teens.   When King’s owner was contracted to build the first public bridge connecting North Carolina to Alabama, he assigned the task to his slave, Horace .  By the mid 1800’s Horace King became widely known for his ingenuity, and was touted as the best bridge builder in the Deep South.

King’s signature lattice truss bridges were constructed over almost all the rivers spanning from the Oconee in Georgia to the Tombigbee in Mississippi. According to the article "Horace King." (French, Thomas and John Lupold, 2020) “he  was responsible for nearly every crossing of the Chattahoochee River from Carroll County to Fort Gaines”.

In 1839 Horace King married Frances Gould Thomas. a free Black woman, The couple had five children and .  several of his son later joined him in the bridge building business. In 1849, after the Alabama State Capitol building burned down, King rebuilt it and received high acclaim for its architecture and flowing spiral staircase.  During the mid-1850s King was granted his freedom. He continued to build bridges, stores, houses, and other structures including Moore’s Bridge, over the Chattahoochee River.  In1864 Moore’s Bridge was burned down by the Union cavalry.  

During the Civil War,  Horace King  reluctantly assisted the Confederacy.  AfterUnion troops confiscated or plundered some of his property he petitioned the Federal government for compensation for his loses.  During the period of Reconstruction Horace King became a Republican politician, serving twice as member of the Alabama House of Representatives for Russell County, Horace King continued to stay busy designing and constructing many more bridges and structures.  He  died on May 28, 1885.