For the first 25 years after lumbermen settled in Manistee, the river divided the community, and some people who later became prominent citizens spent their youth ferrying occasional passengers across in canoes. After the Civil War, a private toll bridge was built across the river on the section line that became Maple/Washington Street. Made of wood, it swung on a center pivot to let schooners pass, and pedestrians paid a nickel to cross when laborers earned eight cents an hour. The bridge burned in the Great Fire of October 8, 1871. Manistee County then bought the former bridge company's real estate, but when county voters refused to finance a replacement, the City of Manistee took over the project. In May 1873, the city ordered a swing bridge from the Wrought Iron Bridge Company of Canton, Ohio, for $18,000, and it was completed and in service within the year. It was built without safety equipment; only after about a decade was a light installed to show pedestrians whether the bridge was open or closed, and after another decade newly patented gates were added to physically prevent people from falling into the river. Newspapers had occasionally reported such accidents in the meantime, including a horse and buggy. In 1893, the bridge entered a new era when tracks of the Manistee, Filer City, and Eastlake Electric Street Railway were installed across it. Fourteen years later, shipping interests and the public demanded a better crossing, and a new steel bascule bridge was installed.