TRAGEDY AT THE DYKE BRIDGE
Edgartown, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On the night of July 18, 1969, Senator Edward M. Kennedy's dreams of becoming President of the United States ended at the moment his car went off the Dyke Bridge.
While Ted managed to escape, 28 year old Mary Jo Kopechne*, a Kennedy campaign worker, died. The Senator said that he made seven or eight attempts to save Mary Jo, but then gave up and swam to Edgartown where he returned to his hotel room. Ted arrived at police headquarters at 10:00 a.m. the next morning.
Senator Kennedy had been host to a reunion party on Chappaquiddick Island for women who had worked in RFK's 1968 presidential campaign. Ted and Mary Jo left the party at 11:15 p.m. The Senator made a wrong turn onto an unlit dirt road that led to the bridge and his car went off the bridge into the water.**
Marilyn Schairer says,
"Martha's Vineyard is known for being a beautiful vacation spot, but some travel to Chappaquiddick to stare off the side of the Dyke Bridge and wonder just what happened that fateful night."
She quotes one local resident who says that the first thing visitors ask is...
"Where's the bridge?"
*Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969) was born in Wiles-Barre, PA and graduated from Caldwell College for Women in 1962. She taught for a year at the Mission of St. Jude in Montgomery, AL. In 1964, she joined Senator Robert Kennedy's secretarial staff and contributed to his 1968 presidential candidacy announcement. At the time of her death, MJK lived in Georgetown.
**In 1969, there were no guard rails on the Dyke Bridge. A new memorial plaque has been placed on the bridge. It reads "In remembrance Mary Jo Kopechne 7/26/1940 - 7/18/1969."
SOURCES
"Chappaquiddick: No Profile in Kennedy Courage," by Susan Donaldson James, August 26, 2009, www.abcnews.go.com/
"Fifty Years Later, The Kennedy Accident Still Lures People to Chappaquiddick," by Marilyn Schairer, July 16, 2019, WGBH, www.wgbh.org/
Dyke Bridge at Chappaquiddick
Edgartown, Massachusetts (JFK+50) On the night of July 18, 1969, Senator Edward M. Kennedy's dreams of becoming President of the United States ended at the moment his car went off the Dyke Bridge.
While Ted managed to escape, 28 year old Mary Jo Kopechne*, a Kennedy campaign worker, died. The Senator said that he made seven or eight attempts to save Mary Jo, but then gave up and swam to Edgartown where he returned to his hotel room. Ted arrived at police headquarters at 10:00 a.m. the next morning.
Senator Kennedy had been host to a reunion party on Chappaquiddick Island for women who had worked in RFK's 1968 presidential campaign. Ted and Mary Jo left the party at 11:15 p.m. The Senator made a wrong turn onto an unlit dirt road that led to the bridge and his car went off the bridge into the water.**
Marilyn Schairer says,
"Martha's Vineyard is known for being a beautiful vacation spot, but some travel to Chappaquiddick to stare off the side of the Dyke Bridge and wonder just what happened that fateful night."
She quotes one local resident who says that the first thing visitors ask is...
"Where's the bridge?"
*Mary Jo Kopechne (1940-1969) was born in Wiles-Barre, PA and graduated from Caldwell College for Women in 1962. She taught for a year at the Mission of St. Jude in Montgomery, AL. In 1964, she joined Senator Robert Kennedy's secretarial staff and contributed to his 1968 presidential candidacy announcement. At the time of her death, MJK lived in Georgetown.
**In 1969, there were no guard rails on the Dyke Bridge. A new memorial plaque has been placed on the bridge. It reads "In remembrance Mary Jo Kopechne 7/26/1940 - 7/18/1969."
SOURCES
"Chappaquiddick: No Profile in Kennedy Courage," by Susan Donaldson James, August 26, 2009, www.abcnews.go.com/
"Fifty Years Later, The Kennedy Accident Still Lures People to Chappaquiddick," by Marilyn Schairer, July 16, 2019, WGBH, www.wgbh.org/
Dyke Bridge at Chappaquiddick
Photo by Arwcheek (2008)
