Brunswick, Georgia

Brunswick is a city in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. It is the principal city of the 'Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area' which encompasses all of Brantley, Glynn and McIntosh counties of Georgia. The population was 15,600 at the 2000 census.

The city is an important port city on the Atlantic Coast and is the county seat of Glynn County^GR6. Plans for the city's streets and squares were laid out following Georgia's founder James Oglethorpe's Savannah Plan in 1771. Brunswick was incorporated on February 22, 1856. The city was once called The Shrimp Capital of the World, due to the many wild shrimp harvested in its local waters.

Brunswick is home to the Brunswick Golden Isles Airport, which is served by Delta Air Lines.

1 Geography
2 Demographics
3 Early history
4 Locals and environs
5 The Marshes of Glynn
6 Liberty ships
7 1991 plane crash
8 Superfund sites
9 Trivia
10 References
11 External links

[edit] Geography

Brunswick is located at 31°9′32″N, 81°29′21″W (31.158777, -81.489252)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 65.2 km² (25.2 mi²). 44.6 km² (17.2 mi²) of it is land and 20.7 km² (8.0 mi²) of it (31.68%) is water.

The Intracoastal Waterway passes between Brunswick and St. Simons Island, utilizing the South Brunswick River and the Mackay River.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 15,600 people, 6,085 households, and 3,681 families residing in the city. The population density was 349.8/km² (906/mi²). There were 6,952 housing units at an average density of 155.9/km² (403.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 36.41% White, 59.81% African American, 0.27% Native American, 0.35% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 1.73% from other races, and 1.40% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.82% of the population.

There were 6,085 households out of which 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.4% were married couples living together, 24.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 39.5% were non-families. 33.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.13.

In the city the population was spread out with 27.3% under the age of 18, 10.1% from 18 to 24, 27.1% from 25 to 44, 20.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 88.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $22,272, and the median income for a family was $28,564. Males had a median income of $26,172 versus $18,602 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,062. About 25.2% of families and 30.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 43.9% of those under age 18 and 21.7% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Early history

Brunswick was founded in 1771 and named for the duchy of Brunswick-Lueneburg in Germany, the ancestral home of King George II of Great Britain. Many of the street and square names reflect the city's English heritage - Gloucester, Newcastle, Norwich, London, Halifax, and Hanover are examples of such. The streets and squares of the town themselves were laid out in the grid style before the American Revolution by the Royal Province of Georgia in 1771, following James Oglethorpe's Savannah Plan. In 1789, George Washington proclaimed Brunswick as one the five original ports of entry for the Colonies. In 1797 the Georgia General Assembly transferred the county seat of Glynn County from Frederica on St. Simons Island to Brunswick.

[edit] Locals and environs

In addition to being the second largest concentration of historic structures in Georgia, Brunswick and the surrounding area is also a year-round resort community. Because the city limits of Brunswick are relatively small (the majority of the city's metro-area population is located outside the city limits) the city has a small town feel. Located in Glynn County across from mainland Brunswick and the area's famous marshes are the Golden Isles of Georgia, which include St. Simons Island, Sea Island, Jekyll Island and Little St. Simons Island. Jekyll Island was the winter retreat for such wealthy families as the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Morgans, and Goodyears beginning in the late 1800s. The islands' beaches, resorts, shops, and historic sites continue to attract visitors from around the world annually. In 2004, Sea Island was the site of the G-8 summit of world leaders hosted by U.S. President George W. Bush.

The Port of Brunswick is one of the nation's most productive ports on the Atlantic Coast. Besides handling such products as wood pulp, paper products, wheat, soybeans, and heavy machinery, it is the primary U.S. port of import and/or export of numerous automobile manufacturers including Jaguar, Landrover, Porshe, Mitsubishi, Volvo, Ford, GM, and Mercedes. The port is operated by the Georgia Ports Authority, which operates all four ports in the state.

Another landmark of the city is the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), which brings in thousands of students monthly. It provides training for eighty-one federal agencies, in addition to providing services to state and local governments as well as several international organizations.

The Brunswick area is rich in live oak trees, particularly the Southern live oak. Such is the quality of the live oak trees in the Brunswick and the Golden Isles area that Revolutionary warships such as the USS Constitution (nicknamed Old Ironsides) were clad in St. Simons Island oak planks. Brunswick has a famous live oak named Lover's Oak (located on Albany Street). As of 2005, it is approximately 900 years old. Local legends and American Indian folklore say that Indian lovers would meet under the majestic tree.

Residents of Brunswick lay claim to their city as being the origin of the famous Brunswick stew (Brunswick County, Virginia also lays claim to this title.) A plaque on a pot at the Brunswick Visitors Center states that the first Brunswick stew was cooked in it on July 2, 1898, on nearby St. Simons Island.

Brunswick is also home to historic Glynn Academy, Georgia's second oldest public high school, founded in 1788 under the public education provisions of the Northwest Ordinances. The county's other high school, Brunswick High School, is located outside the city limits.

[edit] The Marshes of Glynn

In 1878, poet and native Georgian Sidney Lanier wrote his world-famous poem The Marshes of Glynn about the marshes in Glynn county as he sought relief from tuberculosis in Brunswick's climate. A major bridge near the marshes of Glynn is named the Sidney Lanier Bridge. There is a historical marker overlooking the marshes of Glynn commemorating Lanier and the poem, and a live oak tree near the marker is named the Sidney Lanier Oak.(located in the median of Glynn Avenue/Highway 17)

The original Sidney Lanier Bridge was a vertical lift bridge on U.S. Highway 17 crossing over the South Brunswick River and was opened June 22, 1956. On November 7, 1972 the ship African Neptune struck the bridge, causing parts of the bridge to collapse, taking cars with it. Ten deaths were caused by the accident. On May 3, 1987 the bridge was again struck by a ship, this time by the Polish freighter Ziemia Bialostocka (ziemia Białostocka). In 2003 a new cable-stayed bridge with the same name was opened to allow larger ships to enter the port and to eliminate the need for the drawbridge on U.S. highway 17. It is the longest-spanning bridge in Georgia. The elevation at the top of the support towers is 480 feet.

[edit] Liberty ships

During World War II, Brunswick boomed as over 16,000 workers of the J. A. Jones Construction Company produced ninety-nine Liberty ships and "Knot" ships (Type C1-M ships which were designed for short coastal runs, and most often named for knots) for the U.S. Maritime Commission to transport war matériel to the European and Pacific Theatres.

The first ship was the SS James M. Wayne (named after James Moore Wayne), whose keel was laid on July 6, 1942 and was launched on March 13, 1943. The last ship was the SS Coastal Ranger, whose keel was laid on June 7, 1945 and launched on August 25, 1945. The first six ships took 305 to 331 days each to complete, but soon production ramped up and most of the remaining ships were built in about two months, bringing the average down to 89 days each. By November 1943, about four ships were launched per month. The SS William F. Jerman was completed in only 34 days in November and December 1944. Six ships could be under construction in ways (shipways or slipways) at one time.

The United States Navy stated that they would require six ships from each shipyard for the month of December 1944. The workers guaranteed the delivery of not six, but seven ships. For the first eleven months of 1944, an average of 4.27 ships were launched per month. Up to this point the shipyard had never produced more than five ships in a calendar month, except for August 1944, in which six ships were launched. However, the first ship of August 1944 was launched on August 1 and the last one on August 31, and only three ships had been launched in July and only four ships were launched in September. So a ship that might well have been launched in July was actually launched on August 1. The workers fulfilled their promise of completing seven ships in December 1944 by working overtime, including working on Christmas day. Apart from the ships launched in December 1944, only one ship was completed in under 43 days. With the extra work, all of the ships launched this month were completed in 34 to 42 days (which included the SS William F. Jerman mentioned above). Furthermore, the workers asked that they not be paid for their extra work. Each worker endorsed their time-and-a-half paycheck over to the government. They never produced more than five ships in a calendar month again, although a full five ships had been launched in the previous month of November and five more were launched the next month, January 1945. By March 1945 production of ships started to decline. The last ship launched was the SS Coastal Ranger, launched on August 25, 1945, shortly after the war ended.

Most of the Liberty ships from Brunswick were assigned to U.S. shipping companies and most of them were named after famous Americans (starting with U.S. Supreme Court Justices from the South). However, numbers 19, 29, and 31–40 went to Great Britain (Ministry of War Transport) under the Supplemental Defense Appropriations Act of 1941 (see Lend-Lease) and were given one-word names starting with "Sam" (e.g. Samdee). Number 73 went to the Norwegian government.

An iron cut-away scale model (approximately 1:20) of a Liberty ship had been built for employee training. Sometime after the end of World War II this was put on display in Brunswick, at the end of F. J. Torras Causeway, near the shipyards. Unfortunately, it was not maintained and after twenty years it rusted badly and was scrapped. In 1987 efforts were started to build and display a new model. This 23-foot scale model was unveiled on August 23, 1991 in Mary Ross Park. It is very similar to the original scale model except that it is not cut away to reveal the inner decks. A new park (called Liberty Ship Park) is being built near the site of the original Sidney Lanier Bridge and the model is to be moved there.

[edit] 1991 plane crash

An Atlantic Southeast Airlines Embraer EMB 120 plane crashed in Brunswick on April 5, 1991 due to propeller control failure[1] . The crash claimed the lives of all twenty-three people on board, including former U.S. Senator John Tower of Texas and astronaut Sonny Carter.

[edit] Superfund sites

The Hanlin Group, Inc. maintained a facility named "LCP Chemicals" in Glynn County, just outside the corporate limits of Brunswick, which was convicted of dumping 150 tons of mercury into Purvis Creek, a tributary of the Turtle River and surrounding tidal marshes between the mid-1980s and its closure in 1994. Two executives were sentenced to prison time over the incident.

The LCP facility had been declared a Superfund site when it closed in 1994 and was already under scrutiny by the EPA when Service biologists discovered mercury poisoning in endangered wood storks on St. Simons Island. Fish, shellfish, crabs, and shrimps taken in coastal waters as well as other bird species also contained the toxic metal. The Service traced the source of the contamination to the LCP plant and documented the extent of the damage to wildlife resources–an effort that resulted in the addition of Endangered Species Act charges to those that would be brought against Hanlin and its officers. Link to EPA information

Other Superfund sites in the area are

Brunswick Wood Preserving EPA link
Hercules 009 Landfill EPA link
Terry Creek Dredge Spoil Areas/Hercules Outfall EPA link

[edit] Trivia

Scenes from the films Conrack, The Longest Yard, & The View From Pompey's Head were filmed in Brunswick.
On March 13, 2006, Brunswick's mayor Bryan Thompson appeared on the game show Deal or No Deal on NBC. Thompson turned down an offer for $198,000 in the game, and afterward received lower offers. Later though, he was offered a deal of $202,000, which he took. Thompson decided that he would split the money between himself and his town. During the show, Thompson's constituents were on a monitor via satellite, and he looked to them for guidance.