Initially Woodbury Creek was the main route of transporting goods in and out of town, but by the mid 1690s this began to shift towards a more earthy terrain. Between 1696 and 1698 the Great Road, also known as King's Road was chartered. It was later referred to as Main Street and/or Woodbury Street, but in 1854 the name was officially changed to Broad Street. Trolley tracks were soon laid and service began in 1894 (Sands, 2004).
The picture above, one of my favorites of Woodbury, shows just how broad Broad Street really is. This scene depicts a roadway uncluttered with automobiles. It appears as if you could actually cross the street without fearing for your life, a common concern in modern times. One hopes the plans to restructure Broad Street pans out. This would cut the four lanes down to two with a center left-turn lane and create extended sidewalk "bump-outs" to make crossing distances physically shorter.
The name Broad Street has held for 157 years, about half as long as it has existed. The first 157 years of its existence, the road went by other names as mentioned above. Perhaps with the completion of the planned restructuring it will come time to rename this road once again. Something along the lines of the Not-So-Broad-and-a-Little-Safer-to-Cross Street sounds good to me. Either that or we ban the cars and put the trolley back in.
Sands, R. W. (2006). Woodbury: Images of America. (p. 128). Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing.
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