Bridge being dedicated to honor Harriet Tubman

The Harriet Tubman Bridge will open today, October 18, to honor the woman behind the Underground Railroad and who helped lead Union raids in the area.

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The bridge was built as part of a $100 million road widening project for the rural stretch of U.S. 17 between Colleton and Beaufort counties.

The Post and Courier has more on the 2 p.m. ceremony.

The Beaufort area had been held by the Union since 1861 and that allowed Tubman to use it as a base to raid into nearby Confederate plantations. Wikipedia talks a bit about the raid on Confederate plantations:
Tubman became the first woman to lead an armed assault during the Civil War. When Montgomery and his troops conducted an assault on a collection of plantations along the Combahee River, Tubman served as a key adviser and accompanied the raid. On the morning of 2 June 1863, Tubman guided three steamboats around Confederate mines in the waters leading to the shore. Once ashore, the Union troops set fire to the plantations, destroying infrastructure and seizing thousands of dollars worth of food and supplies. When the steamboats sounded their whistles, slaves throughout the area understood that it was being liberated. Tubman watched as slaves stampeded toward the boats. "I never saw such a sight," she said later, describing a scene of chaos with women carrying still-steaming pots of rice, pigs squealing in bags slung over shoulders, and babies hanging around their parents' necks. Although their owners, armed with handguns and whips, tried to stop the mass escape, their efforts were nearly useless in the tumult. As Confederate troops raced to the scene, steamboats packed full of slaves took off toward Beaufort.