Bisected Community Toes the Line and Has Two of Almost Everything

Police officeW. Booher remembers the time a young rowdy tried to take advantage of the state line running through downtown Bristol.

“He stood right in the middle of the street, straddled the line and said, ‘You guys can’t arrest me. Half of me is in another state,’ ” recalls Booher, now captain of the Bristol, Tenn., police department.

“I lunged for him and he stepped back into Virginia and into the arms of the Bristol, Va., police department.”

State Street splits Bristol into two cities whose citizens answer to two different governors, obey different laws and pay different taxes.

There are two mayors, two police departments and two of almost every other public service. There is a joint planning commission, but it’s divided into two groups. There are two postal ZIP codes and two telephone area codes.

Here in the rolling hills of Appalachia where country music was born, Bristol is one of the few American cities that straddle a state line. Others are Bluefield, which is in Virginia and West Virginia, and Texarkana, which is shared by Texas and Arkansas.

About 24,000 Bristol residents call Tennessee home and 18,000 live in Virginia. Both sides ascribe to the bright neon sign over State Street that proclaims Bristol “a good place to live.”

A mural at the downtown transit station claims that country music was first recorded in Bristol. Such artists as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, “the father of country music,” cut records at the old State Street Hotel in 1927.

Today, the Carter Family, including Johnny Cash’s wife, June Carter Cash, has a museum at the nearby Carter Family Fold and each year a Carter Family Memorial Festival is held, featuring bluegrass.

The Carter Family and Rodgers were eventually elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

“We only have one problem,” said Wes Davis, a former mayor of Bristol, Tenn. “The politicians in Richmond think Bristol is a small town. The same thing happens in Nashville. But, when you add both halves together, we’re pretty big.”

The subtle differences in the two Bristols are often lost in the daily shuffle, said Davis, who, like other mayors, has ridden down the center of State Street with his counterpart, each in his own state, on different sides of the car.

But there are some differences, Davis said. For example, the Tennessee side has attracted a larger number of dentists, doctors and other professionals interested in avoiding Virginia’s state income tax.

Lower Sales Tax

On the other hand, Virginia, with its lower sales tax, can save consumers 3.5% on large purchases and a few cents on cigarettes.

Both Bristols once were dry and the nearest place to purchase alcohol was in a state-run store in Abingdon, Va. Agents from Tennessee’s Alcoholic Beverage Commission used to watch Tennesseans drive into Washington County, Va., buy liquor and bring it back across the border.

Virginia’s booze advantage ended when the city of Bristol, Tenn., legalized liquor by the drink several years ago. As a result, the Virginia Legislature allowed liquor sales in Bristol, Va., beginning on July 1.

Although Virginians have the jointly owned Bristol Public Library on their side of the line, they must travel to Tennessee to use the airport.

Even the local newspaper, the Bristol Herald Courier, on Sundays adds to its name that of the Bristol Virginia-Tennessean, a newspaper that no longer publishes weekdays but was owned by the Herald Courier’s parent company.

Funding a new hospital was a problem until city planners got the idea of building it on the state line. But, if you want to ride a municipal bus from one city to the other, you’ll have to change buses downtown.

The state line remains a curiosity for tourists, but for most residents it’s no more than State Street’s double yellow stripe, which the cities take turns painting, said Mike Callahan of the Bristol, Tenn., Department of Public Services.

“We get excited when the high schools play each other, but the rest of the year nobody thinks about it much,” secretary Lola Greer said.

Police officers still lead motorcades of students up and down State Street before the game every year between Tennessee High and Virginia High.

“I was born in Bristol, Va., moved to Bristol, Tenn., after I got married, and now I drive back to Bristol, Va., every day to work,” Greer said. “I can’t tell that much difference.”

When it comes to recruiting new businesses, the cities cooperate as never before, Bristol, Va., Mayor James Rector and Bristol, Tenn., Mayor Ewell Easley said.

A mayor will show his side of the state line first, but any prospective employer gets to see both Bristols before he departs, Easley said.