NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/668245
ivers were major travel barriers for most of human history. Crossing a large river meant an expensive ferry ride, or driving a team across the ice in winter, and there was no crossing at all during floods or the spring breakup of the ice. One of the more creative attempts at a solution occurred in Nebraska City in the late 1880s. Congress chartered the Nebraska City Bridge Company in the early 1870s, but by summer 1888 only the new Burlington Railroad bridge spanned the Missouri River there. Everybody else still had to use a ferry. A man named Col. S. N. Stewart of Philadelphia proposed to build a pontoon toll bridge if the community would subsidize its construction. Local leaders agreed. The pontoon bridge was estimated to have cost about $18,000 and opened to much fanfare on Aug. 23, 1888. Not only was it said to be the first pontoon bridge across the Missouri River, but it was also the largest drawbridge of its kind in the world. The pontoon section crossing the main channel was 1,074 feet long with a l,050-foot cribwork approach spanning a secondary channel between an island and the Iowa shore. The roadway, including two pedestrian footways, was 24.5 feet wide. Opening the "draw" (the V-shaped portion that could swing open for boats or flowing ice) provided a 528-foot-wide passage. While the bridge operated successfully during ice-free months or when the river was not unusually high or low, the capricious Missouri soon created problems. It became increasingly clear that a permanent wagon bridge was still needed. In the spring of 1890 city leaders began planning an election to vote bonds to build one. Stewart responded by threatening to remove the pontoon bridge. Voters approved the bridge bonds in July; the courts initially upheld them against a series of legal challenges mounted by the Burlington Railroad. The Burlington claimed it had acquired the Nebraska City Bridge Company's original charter to build the railroad bridge and, therefore, the railroad was entitled to the bonds. Stewart then announced that he had sold the pontoon bridge to parties in Atchison, Kansas. On Nov. 13 the pontoons were sent down the river toward the bridge's new home. A month later, the U.S. District Court ruled the bridge bonds invalid, and Nebraska City was back where it had started. In 1891 the Burlington laid planks beside the tracks across the railroad span so it could be used as a toll bridge for non-railroad traffic. Nebraska City's dream of a permanent A Brief History Nebraska City's Pontoon Bridge From the Nebraska State Historical Society R A pontoon bridge (also known as a floating bridge) that crossed the Missouri River near Nebraska City. The V-shaped portion could swing open for boats or flowing ice. 12 NEBRASKAland • MAY 2016