Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/672

 590 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY these. ( . A. Erickson and Hiram Howe are also directors of the company. All of the pile bridges on the island have been removed and the places filled, making a solid roadway. The making of a solid fill across the Wisconsin channel is being investigated and may be done, as the bridge has been in poor condition for some time and a fill would not be of much more expense than re- building the bridge. WAGON BRIDGE. The high steel bridge spanning the Mississippi is the realiza- tion of a dream that was entertained since the days of the earliest settlement, and was the natural outcome of the ferry sys- tem which prevailed for so many years. The bridge is a magnifi- cent structure, a veritable triumph of the bridge builder's art. In beauty of design as well as in solidity of construction, and the carefulness displayed in the details, the bridge has few equals and probably no superiors in this part of the country. At the point where the bridge crosses the river, the channel is about 650 feet wide, with a depth of seventeen I'eet in mid-channel at low water. On the Minnesota side an earthwork approach com- mences at the intersect ion of .Main and Bluff streets and runs northerly on Bluff streel a distance of 333 feet. The bridge proper consists of four spans and a trestle approach on the Wis- consin side, all constructed of steel and resting on masonry foun- dations. The substructure consists of two high channel piers, a smaller pier on the Wisconsin shore, four short piers under the short span on the Mississippi shore and sixty-two small piers under the Wisconsin trestle approach. The total cost was $66,- 800. The bridge was opened with appropriate ceremonies May 1, 1895. The work on the substructure began in June, 1894. It was practically completed in November of the same year. Work on the superstructure began in January, 1895, and was completed in the latter part of April. The earthen approaches and the small piers were built by the city during the summer and fall of 1894. The three large piers were built by D. D. Smith, of Minneapolis; the sixty-six small piers were built under the direction of City Engineer L. P. Wolff and Street Commissioner P. M. Luft. the stone being furnished by Andrew Danielson. The contract for the steel superstructure Avas filled by the Toledo Bridge Com- pany, of Toledo, Ohio. In addition to that provided by Mr. Dan- ielson. stone was furnished by Gust Lillyblad and John Johnson. The lumber was furnished by the Charles Betcher Lumber Com- pany. The original board which considered the advisability of building the bridge, and had much to do with the successful