Old Fort Benton Bridge

Completed in 1888 and used until 1963, the bridge at this site was built by the Benton Bridge Company as a toll bridge without federal, county, or state money to encourage Fort Benton's Judith Basin trade. Choteau County eventually paid a token $9999 for the structure in 1896. For many years, a 225-foot turn span stood ready to open for steamboats that never came until the O.K. finally steamed through in 1908. Neither lasted long afterward: the span was destroyed in a flood on June 6, 1908, and the O.K. burned on June 30 that year. After the span was rebuilt, the Corps of Engineers gave special permission for Fort Benton's bridge to block steamboat navigation farther up the Big Muddy, and the cost of its replacement upriver was financed by a special county levy matched by federal funds, again without state money.

Fort Benton, Montana · United States