Crawdads Under the Little Bridge

There were loads of crawdads in the lake, but especially around the Little Bridge. The Little Bridge was at the east end of the lake. It was just that - a little bridge. It was about ten feet long and three or four feet wide. It separated the two larger western segments of the lake from what was referred to as the Lagoon near Summit Street. There was also a Big Bridge that the city called the Japanese Bridge. We just called it the Big Bridge. The Lagoon had the greatest population of snapping turtles and frogs (and tadpoles). This was likely due to its mostly stagnant water. At one point in its history, the Lagoon had a Monkey Island. I do not have any pictures of the platform built in the middle of the Lagoon about thirty yards from either shore. There were actually monkeys out there. They were gone by the early to mid sixties. I know of kids who swam out to the "island" but I never did.