Occoquan remembers Hurricane Agnes 50 years after bridge collapse

Occoquan officials will gather at Town Hall today to remember the 50th anniversary of Hurricane Agnes.

A new piece of art will be unveiled. The creation uses a part of The Route 123 bridge that fell during the storm, Mayor Earnie Porta said. The commemoration begins at 11 a.m. at 458 Mill Street.

The massive storm that ravaged the east coast in 1972 killed 155 people in the U.S. and caused damage to $3 billion (more than $18 billion today when adjusted for inflation).

Locally, flood waters washed out the Route 123 bridge over the Occoquan River. Today, the bridge supports remain, and a pedestrian bridge carries visitors over the river to view a waterfall on the Fairfax County side of the water.

The storm also caused the collapse of a tall bridge that carried Route 1 over the Occoquan River in Woodbridge when a barge plowed into supports built in the late 19th century.

The storm dropped so much rain that it helped crews working to build Lake Anna in Spotsylvania and Louisa counties. In 1971, crews cleared the land for the new lake that would be used to cool a nuclear reactor.

Initially, crews anticipated the lake filling with water over three years. However, Hurricane Agnes dropped so much rain that the lake filled up in just 18 months.

“Though modest in wind speeds, in terms of the damage it caused, Agnes was one of the most devastating storms in history up to that time. States to the north of Virginia also sustained heavy losses until Agnes eventually traveled northeast of Cape Breton Island and out into the North Atlantic,” Porta noted in an email in June 2022.

Agnes affected Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey residents.