Muscatine, Iowa Bridge 1891

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Muscatine, Iowa, is located approximately 30 miles down-river from Davenport and 50 miles upstream from Burlington, the sites of two earlier bridges across the Mississippi. Pressure for a bridge at Muscatine started as early as 1872, but a bill in Congress to permit a bridge was not passed until July 16, 1888, as “CHAP. 628.-An act to authorize the construction of a railroad, wagon, and foot passenger bridge across the Mississippi River at or near Muscatine, Iowa.”

Section 2 stated in part,

That any bridge built under the provisions of this act may, at the option of the company building the same, be built as a drawbridge or with unbroken and continuous spans: Provided, That if the said bridge shall be made with unbroken and continuous spans, it shall have one or more channel spans, each having not less than three hundred and fifty feet clear channel-way, and not less than fifty-five feet clear head-room above high-water mark, and the clear head-room under other than channel-spans may be less than fifty five feet…

The clearance widths and heights are once again, for no apparent reasons, different than earlier laws governing these factors in the past. The bill allowed a bridge for railroads, carriages, pedestrians, etc. A Private Company the Muscatine Bridge Company, composed of resident merchants and businessmen, was formed to build a bridge to provide wagon traffic across the river to the rich agricultural region in Illinois. It chose a high-level bridge over a low-level swing bridge with the possibility of in the future adding a low-level bridge for railroad traffic with a swing span. It would be financed by stock issues and bonds. Failing in raising the necessary funds a proposition to assist in the funding by a 3% tax on residents was proposed and passed by a large margin providing approximately 1/3 of the cost of the bridge. It would be the third bridge across the Mississippi for wagon and carriage traffic and the third at a high level.

The Chief Engineer was George F. Baker. Baker was an Iowa native who attended Cornell University graduating in 1879 and worked on several railroads in the Midwest. He would go on to also design bridges across the Mississippi River at Clinton, Iowa, and Winona, Minnesota. He later became involved in politics serving as Mayor of Davenport and was on an Emergency Railroad Board appointed by President Calvin Coolidge.

The Milwaukee Bridge Company, a well-known regional bridge builder, received the contract to build the bridge in July 1889 with completion date of July 1890. The plan consisted of, beginning from the Iowa end of bridge,

The approach grades were 3.65%. The wooden deck width was only 18 feet which was sufficient for slow moving wagons but narrow for future faster moving automobiles and trucks. In addition, it carried one 4-foot sidewalk on the downstream side.

This was the second time a cantilever bridge was built across the Mississippi. The first was the Fort Snelling Bridge. Several cantilevers had been built in the East including one over the Niagara River by C. C. Schneider and the Poughkeepsie Bridge over the Hudson River that opened in early 1889. The 361-feet anchor spans were longer than on the typical cantilever, the cantilever arms shorter than usual and the suspended span longer than usual. The total length of the cantilever arms and suspended span was 422 feet, giving a horizontal clearance of greater than the required 350 feet. The rest of the iron trusses were single intersection Pratt trusses with curved upper chord. Originally each foundation for the piers was to be of masonry resting on wood piles and a wooden mat of 12 inches by 12 inches timbers of a sufficient thickness to reach within 1 foot of the low water level. To cut costs, three piers were replaced with iron cylinders, with diameters of 5 feet, 5 feet 6 inches and 6 feet, filled with concrete. The piers above the masonry foundations were a variety of iron bents with one of masonry. The original plan was likely to have them all masonry, but to cut costs, the rest were iron.

Work was started in July 1889 and the bridge opened on May 8, 1891, to a grand celebration. The Muscatine Journal wrote it was, “constructed of the best material and on the latest improved plan. It is one of the most handsome bridges on the river.” The final cost of the bridge was $149,000 with $52,600 of stock, $60,000 of bonds and the rest by the 3% property tax. The tolls for crossing were 15 cents for each team and 5 cents for each person.

As noted, one span collapsed in 1899 when ice pushed one of the iron cylinders out of plumb and the span slipped off its support. A second failure occurred in 1956 when a vehicle collided with one of the trusses causing a span to collapse. The span was replaced, and the bridge continued service until its successor, the Norbert Beckey Bridge, was opened On December 2, 1972. The only remaining remnant of the old bridge is the masonry pier. ■

About the Author

Dr. Frank Griggs, Dist.M. ASCE, specializes in the restoration of historic bridges, having restored many 19th Century cast and wrought iron bridges. He is now an Independent Consulting Engineer (fgriggsjr@verizon.net).