At least four generations of travelers have crossed the swing bridge that connects mainland North Carolina to Topsail Island. After so many people and so many years, the bridge has become a landmark. It marks a vacation’s beginning and end. It’s wonderfully out of step. It has a lot of character. And soon, it may be gone.
How can a singular beacon represent so much? Our seven lighthouses powerfully reflect our own values — of innovation, endurance, and strength.
When he was a teenager, Philip Gerard left Delaware to discover himself. He had nothing but a sleeping bag, clothes, a backpack, a stove, and a canteen. Then he found a personal guide in the Hatteras Light.
John Harris learned to fly in the 1970s with a piece of nylon. And still today, whether he’s holding a kite string in his hands on the Nags Head beach or strapping a hang glider to his back on Jockey’s Ridge, he enjoys knowing that the only thing keeping the contraption aloft is the breeze beneath him.
In the hub of Carteret County, the water is where people work and where they play.
Designed as a park to encourage visitation, Wilmington’s Oakdale Cemetery was the first cemetery in North Carolina to be part of a national Rural Garden Cemetery Movement, a place for family to celebrate the living as well as the dead.
Birds of many feathers flock to Sylvan Heights Bird Park in Halifax County. They come because one man, Mike Lubbock, brings them here for one reason: his unwavering love.
When your hometown is famous for its namesake pickle company, you don’t mind saying you grew up across the street from a pickle plant.
Eating barbecue at this Dudley restaurant is simple, but running the place requires some sacrifices.
