Back Home

Javascript is required to use this website.

1 of 6

The old bridge crossing the Beaver Creek near Ettrick, Wisconsin, is slowly sinking.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

A two-span iron simple-truss bridge crosses in 1977 the Black River on Jackson County Road V a half-mile south of North Bend, Wisconsin. It was built by the Clinton Bridge and Iron Company of Clinton, Iowa. Construction was begun in 1893 and completed by late-summer 1896. It replaced an old wooden bridge built in 1875. Though its collapse date is shown as ‘unknown’ in the Wisconsin Historical Society files, Chris Hardie knows. It collapsed in 1980.

Wisconsin Historical Society, Image # 74257

The Waterloo Truss Bridge near West Salem, Wisconsin, crosses the La Crosse River; it was built in 1911.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

A truss design holds up the Waterloo bridge.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

One can still walk across the Waterloo Truss Bridge near West Salem, Wisconsin.

Chris Hardie/For Agri-View

An old bridge had a curved approach into Wabasha, Minnesota.

Contributed

Prefer us on Google

Chris Hardie For Agri-View

I’ve always been fascinated with bridges, ever since as a youngster our family drove across the Mackinac Bridge for the first time.

Chris Hardie and his wife, Sherry, raise animals and crops on his great-grandparents’ Jackson County farm. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2001, he’s a former member of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and past-president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association. Email chardie1963@gmail.com with comments.