With the City of Selma already celebrating it’s heritage Saturday, the little noon-time crowd down by the river near the St. James Hotel could easily have been overlooked by the tourists bustling from one grand house to another.

In a simple ceremony involving Selma Mayor James Perkins Jr. and members of the Historical Preservation Society, the a marker commemorating Selma’s First Bridge across the Alabama.

Society member George Needham, along with Perkins, unveiled the marker which is a reminder of Selma’s less famous bridge across the Alabama.

The marker, which is made of bronze, uses a process that allows a picture to be printed on aluminum to give the marker a feature unique in Selma. In the center of the marker is a black and white photo of the bridge.

The bridge, built in 1884, was a toll bridge until 1900.

The marker gives visitors the cost of a trip across the bridge, ranging from 5 cents for pedestrians to 75 cents for a four-horse wagon.

Hopefully those prices didn’t give the mayor any ideas.

In 1900 the county bought the bridge and removed the toll.

The cornerstone, the abutment and the bridge tender’s house are still in existence.