For a time it was the most infamous stretch of road in Houston. And its notoriety started with a kiss.

Until the 1960s, if you wanted to get from Houston to, say, the San Jacinto Battleground or maybe even Sylvan Beach, you generally had to take the La Porte Road.

You can still follow that route -- for a few miles at least -- if you go east from Broadway on Lawndale. You'll cross over Sims Bayou near a water treatment facility before running into the La Porte freeway.

Eighty years ago, a dual-span truss bridge carried travelers over that bayou. Five motorists would die there in 1936. After the first two deaths, newspapers bestowed on it a grim title: the "Kiss of Death" bridge.

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In February, 20-year-old Haskell Owens, his wife of six months and some friends were returning to Houston after spending the day on the bayfront. The Southern Pacific worker was navigating the dimly lit roadway on a foggy Friday night when they approached the bridge from the east.

"Owens reached over to kiss his wife and the car got out of control," said Charles A. Hardy, a passenger, as reported in the Houston Chronicle. "It swerved toward the bridge approach. He tried to right it but it was too late."

The car careened into the bridge. Owens was thrown against the steering wheel and died of head and chest injuries. A passenger, 15-year-old Karen Guldmann, hit the windshield and was killed. Owens' wife and another passenger were hospitalized with cuts and bruises.

Other deaths followed in May and August. The final straw came in October when 26-year-old Irene Blaha died when the coupe she was riding in struck a concrete pillar on the bridge. Two others were injured.

Just after the crash, Houston Police Chief B.W. Payne inspected the bridge to figure out why so many drivers were getting into wrecks there. He told the Houston Chronicle that the problems stemmed from the curving highway, the esplanade and the dual-bridge setup. Floodlights seemed to be the quickest remedy, he surmised.

Hours after Blaha's death, four more people were injured in a collision on the bridge.

That November, City Council ordered the installation of five, 250-watt sodium vapor floodlights at the site. By February 1937, the lights hadn't been installed, forcing the city to erect a reflector-laden checkerboard warning of sorts for motorists approaching the bridge. Part of the delay was attributed to Houston Lighting and Power's inability to obtain an easement to erect the poles. Also complicating matters was that maintenance of the bridge fell to the state highway department since the roadway had been officially designated as Texas 225 in late 1935.

Eventually the floodlights were installed and the number of fatalities declined. Two died in wrecks there in 1937.

Body found near bridge Once, the Houston Chronicle invoked the "Kiss of Death" name as a point of reference for a death near the span. In October 1942, the body of an auburn-haired woman, wearing a black silk dress with white dots, was found floating in Sims Bayou near the bridge. A passerby on the bridge saw her body, face-down in the bayou. Authorities figured she had been in the water for about 24 hours. Though her body showed no signs of foul play, a note was found in addition to a letter pinned to her clothing. It was addressed "Dearest Husband," and concluded with "Goodbye."

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By 1952, the freeway began to take shape when a highway was extended from the Gulf Freeway to the La Porte Road (now part of Loop 610). By the mid-1960s, the new freeway would go up just to the south, shifting traffic from that bridge.

The "Kiss of Death" bridge is no longer there, replaced with a newer, far less infamous, span.