The Pacific Short Line Bridge was built by the Phoenix Bridge Company as fabricator and erector, with Sooysmith and Company constructing the foundations and piers, and stone from piers of the previous bridge at this spot was used in this monument. The Pacific Short Line had been a speculative railroad venture by Sioux City businessmen seeking new markets to the west. Although the railroad company failed in 1893, Sioux City investors saw the bridge through to completion. The bridge opened new business markets and tied northeastern Nebraska to Sioux City. Known locally as the combination bridge, it originally carried trains and street cars down the center and horse-drawn cars and pedestrians on the outside. It consisted of two 500-foot Pennsylvania fixed spans and two 470-foot Pratt rim-bearing swing spans with timber trestle approaches. The swing spans allowed passage of steamboat and were first opened by hand and later by electrical power. The Iowa swing span was removed in 1959. Because the bridge was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, a written history and photographs were prepared in 1980 for the Historic American Engineering record of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The bridge was demolished in March 1981, when a modern replacement structure was completed.