Fort Benton Bridge

When railroads replaced steamboats, Fort Benton's importance as a trade center declined, and local businessmen formed the Benton Bridge Company to build a bridge across the Missouri River and capture the trade of the rapidly developing Judith Basin. The first steel bridge across the Missouri River in Montana enabled ranchers and farmers to ship livestock and grain from the Fort Benton railhead and preserved the town's regional trading significance. Because the Missouri was classified as a navigable waterway, the company needed federal permission, and Congress approved the project on the condition that one span pivot open for boats. In 1888, Haney and Ryann began sinking the piers and protected them with ice breaks made of heavy timbers; the dangerous work claimed the lives of two men. The Milwaukee Bridge and Iron Works Company built the steel and iron superstructure, and when the 825-foot, six-span, pin-connected through-truss bridge was finished, a newspaper praised it as strong, durable, and handsome. Crossing tolls were 5 cents for pedestrians, 25 cents for a horse and buggy, and 12.5 cents for each head of cattle, with special rates for large droves. The county bought the bridge in 1892. After floods in June 1908 washed out the swing span, the Army Corps of Engineers allowed it to be replaced with a permanent pin-connected steel Parker through-truss span. Vehicles continued crossing the Missouri over the Great Iron Bridge until 1962.

Fort Benton, Montana · United States