At the bottom of New Hanover County is what is now called Pleasure Island.  Back in 1930 the Army Corp of Engineers under the supervision of Major William Arthur Snow of the Army Corps of Engineers cut a canal from the Intracoastal Waterway to the Cape Fear River to enable ships to have a shorter route to the ports of Wilmington.  This area is now called Snow's Cut and was named after the Major Snow.

In 1927 Congress authorized the continuation of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from Beaufort, NC to the mouth of the Cape Fear River, adding to the 800 miles of waterway already in use from Cape Cod to Beaufort.  This part of the sheltered inland passage measured 93 miles and was under the supervision of Major William Arthur Snow of the Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District.  A graduate of West Point and MIT and a WW1 decorated veteran.  Snow planned the route through natural inlets, sounds, saltwater rivers, bays and one land cut.

That cut was from Seabreeze to the Cape Fear River transforming the Federal Point peninsula into an island thus requiring a bridge to be constructed.  A temporary wood bridge spanning the new waterway was built in just ten days in February of 1930.  It served until a permanent steel swing bridge opened September 9, 1931.  This two-lane swing bridge was in place from 1931 until the present concrete high-rise bridge opened on August 18. 1962