The Bellefontaine Bridge

The Bellefontaine Bridge is a stone arch bridge built in 1877 by Charles Liebheit and Christian Hartmann over Moore's Run, a tributary of Fountain Creek named for James Moore, one of Waterloo's founders. It is important to Monroe County and Illinois because it connects the only intact portion of the original Kaskaskia Cahokia Trail, which, though only an Indian trace or footpath, was the only established road through the wilderness and probably a deciding factor in the settlement of the earliest American communities in what became Illinois. The first American settlement in Illinois was located here at La Belle Fontaine, so named by the French for a beautiful spring, and the spring became a stopping point along the trail as the area grew into the founding settlement of the City of Waterloo. After deterioration from age and weathering, the bridge was restored in 2015 through generous donations and community support.

Waterloo, Illinois · United States