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XVP: Virginia Street Bridge Being Demolished

#1

The historic bridge made famous in the movie The Misfits is coming down. What is interesting is its still being debated whether divorcee's really threw their rings off that bridge. The story around Reno was the late Hans "Tuna" Lund bankrolled an operation to retreive rings from the river. The legend was they filled 2 coffee cans full of rings. True or not I dont but there is an article from the Milwaukee Journal dated 1977 about Darrell Garmann who spent 2 years dredging the river around the bridge. He found 300 rings the most expensive being appraised at $1200 at the time. He also found coins with a face value totalling $1200 and the rarest of them appraised at $800 at the time.

Google Reno River Yields Divorce Rings. This should put an end to whether it was a myth or not.

#2

The divorcees at Reno had to do 3 months reisidency there to become a Nevada resident in order to get the quickie divorce. The hotel called the El Cortez, 232 w. Main street was built in the 1930's secifically to house the divorcee's. By thelate 1990's the lplace was called the Hustler's Hilton by casino hustlers who stayed there Long after I had checked into the Hustler's Hilton (Ek Cortez) in a phone conversation with my poor old mother who is 80 years old and in assisted l in Juneau , Alasa that when she went to Reno in 1959 to divorce my father she stayed at the El Cortez Motel. Whether she threw her ring in the river or not is a question I've never asked her. Perhaps I will in the next conversation.

#3

For some reason about half my post on this subject didn't get through. The Virginia Street Bridge was made famous in the movie The Misfits. And many people today believe the legend about divorcee's throwing their rings into the from the bridge is a myth. The story around Reno was the late Hans "Tuna" Lund funded an operation to retrieve rings from the river years ago.