Fort Bayou Bridge in Ocean Springs dedicated as Mark M. Seymour Sr. Memorial Bridge

Family, friends, and former colleagues of the late Mark M. Seymour Sr. gathered at Aunt Jenny’s Catfish Restaurant in Ocean Springs to host a dedication ceremony and to unveil the new name of the Fort Bayou Bridge.

Mark M. Seymour Sr. was the first City of Ocean Springs engineer. He facilitated many projects that still serve the community today, but his biggest project is now being named after him.

What was once known as the Old Fort Bayou Bridge is now the Mark M. Seymour Sr. Memorial Bridge. Mr. Seymour was a native of Biloxi and instrumental in securing the funding, planning, and design for the construction of the bridge. Southern District Transportation Commissioner Tom King said, “For a person’s legacy to be on a sign and showing his hard work he did for the area, it will remind people every time they pass that sign about him and what he did for our area.”

Seymour saw the potential in the City of Ocean Springs and knew the bridge needed to be updated due to safety concerns and traffic flow conditions. “He helped the area as far as parks and recreation in all areas in Ocean Springs and helped develop it.”

After Seymour’s passing in 2010, his daughter Patricia Seymour went through his things and found stacks of paper work on the bridge. “I found all these letters and all these documents and I was like I’m going to see what I can do to have that bridge named after him.”

After Patricia got city officials and community leaders on board, the 2021 session of the Mississippi Legislature House Bill 424 passed designating the Old Fort Bayou Bridge to the Mark M. Seymour Sr. Memorial Bridge. “I’m now kind of like going ‘wait a minute, we got this done.’ So, it’s awesome. He really deserved it.”