Bridging Time

The original bridge at this location was a wooden structure built in 1898 after citizens sought access to new development in the Normal Park addition. Subject to spring ice, the elements, and traffic, it required annual maintenance, was condemned after 38 years of service, and was replaced in the winter of 1936-1937 by a concrete bridge designed by City Engineer Paul M. Barnes and built by T. M. Swingen & Son of Cooperstown, ND. The Public Works Administration financed 45% of the approximately $29,000 cost, making the project possible as unemployment relief during the Great Depression, when laborers earned about 55¢ to $1.20 per hour. That 114 foot two span bridge had massive concrete abutments with longitudinal wings, a wall pier supported by untreated timber piling, steel rolled beam girders, a reinforced concrete deck and sidewalks, decorative concrete handrails, and an expansion space over the center pier covered by a sliding steel plate. It served the community for 54 years until a new concrete bridge was built in 1991 by Jim Swingen of Swingen Construction of Grand Forks, ND, the great-grandson of T. M. Swingen. The site also had a milling history: Hiram Walker of Whalen, Minnesota, built the first mill there in 1878 and produced the first flour made by a Valley City mill; he sold it in 1882 to John Russell and his son-in-law Arthur Miller, and after many additions made the building look like patchwork, it was torn down and modernized in 1902, but the new building burned in early 1904 and another was erected in its place.

Valley City, North Dakota · United States