Opened on April 27, 1895, the Hastings Spiral Bridge carried a new high wagon crossing over the Mississippi River and drew eight thousand people to its opening. Built in seven months for $39,050 by the Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Works of Milwaukee, it replaced an inadequate rope ferry that had served a city of 3,848 people and its trade area. Four men claimed credit for the design. Instead of using a traditional straight approach that would have bypassed the business area, the bridge used a spiral ramp that brought arriving traffic to the foot of Sibley Street, half a block from the commercial district. It was the only bridge of its kind in America. Heavier motorized traffic later required a new bridge, completed in 1951 at a cost of $2,500,000, and efforts to save the spiral approach failed. The bridge proper was a Baltimore truss with a curved top chord; the total bridge length was 1987 feet, with a 120-foot earth approach, a 385-foot spiral approach rising 60 feet, a 380-foot channel span, an 18-foot roadway, a 4½-foot sidewalk on the east side raised 8 inches above the road, and a load limit of 256½ tons.