For all of its bells and whistles, Murray State University has long been termed a “suitcase” institution — with hundreds of regional commuters visiting Calloway County to attend classes, before returning home to save money or work a full-time job.
In January 2012, Mary Van Jolly-Naughtin was one such student.
But upon receiving her first degree, she was ready to move back home to Cadiz and work at an intensive care unit in Hopkinsville — while pursuing a graduate degree at MSU.
A Cadiz native and Trigg County High School graduate in the Class of 2004, Jolly-Naughtin lived in Murray while pursuing an undergraduate degree in nursing.
One small piece of this dual-life puzzle proved to be the Eggners Ferry Bridge — connecting western Trigg County to eastern Calloway and Marshall counties. Going through LBL has always been the fastest commute, and it’s a drive she and Christy Hale Millay shared two-to-three times a week for classroom attendance and clinicals.
On the night of January 26, 2012, the Delta Mariner’s crash in a recreation channel took out a 322-foot section of the oft-used bridge. And it changed everyone’s commute, including theirs, for the next year.
There were options one could take if coming from Trigg County, depending on time. They could take I-24 down to the Purchase Parkway, cut behind Benton and come in on US Hwy. 641. They could take US 68/80, hit the northern Trace, connect to I-24 and then go on the Purchase Parkway and US Hwy. 641. Or they could hit the southern Trace, take TN 79 through Dover and come into southern Murray and the downtown court square.
They took the I-24/Purchase route — which made things…difficult, to say the least.
Jolly-Naughtin remembers her and her father, Scott, taking a flight above the bridge’s wreckage soon after the accident.
Ten years later and well into her APRN relationship with the Trigg County Hospital Primary Care Clinic, Jolly-Naughtin now has even more perspective about what an accident like this would do to the healthcare pipeline in west Kentucky.
Transfers happen frequently from either side of the lakes, and increasing the commute created unprecedented concerns.
Now a four-lane with two state-of-the-art bridges, transportation isn’t as much of a concern anymore.
And admittedly, Jolly-Naughtin said she’s not taken that alternate route to Murray in a long, long time.
