A Trip Back in Time: 80 Years Ago Today the Stillwater Lift Bridge Opened

Eighty years ago today the Stillwater Lift Bridge opened, replacing the much-rebuilt wooden Stillwater-Houlton bridge.

For more than 30 years the city fathers had been saying a new bridge was needed, but they discovered that talk doesn't build bridges. The Minnesota Highway Department took over the old pontoon swing bridge in 1925; by 1928 the old wooden span had so far deteriorated that it had to be closed to heavy traffic.

Problems arose over who would pay for a new bridge and where it should be located. At last, State Senator George H. Sullivan of Stillwater solved the legal and financial problems by taking the project to the interstate level. Mostly due to his efforts, work on the new bridge began in 1930.

The new bridge was designed to be a vertical lift bridge. Swing spans like the old bridge were considered outdated because they took up too much room. In addition to a counterweighted, tower-and-cable lift span, the new bridge included nine steel trusses, in all spanning just over 1,000 feet. The remaining 800-foot width of the river was covered by an earthen causeway built out on the Wisconsin side. This had the effect of reducing the grade as well as the costs.

The bridge opened on July 1, 1931. The first person to cross the bridge was young Topper Jackson of Stillwater, who bicycled across as soon as the barriers were taken down at 10:05 a.m.

The total cost of the project was $460,000, shared equally by the state of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

--Courtesy of the Washington County Historical Society