JR Manning

Why is it that in Wisconsin, even when you drive a wooden stake through the heart of a really bad idea, it keeps coming back to life, refusing to just die and go away?

In Door County, a battle has been raging over a bridge for about a fifteen years. Back in 2002, the State of Wisconsin DOT, working with the City of Sturgeon Bay, agreed to build a new bridge across Sturgeon Bay and renovate the old Michigan Street Bridge, a beautiful example of a multi-span, through truss and a rare Scherzer-type rolling lift bascule bridge. A citizens group, Citizens for our Bridge, Inc., has been working tirelessly to save the structure, including hosting an annual four-day music festival to raise funds to save the bridge. (See Steel Bridge Songfest for more information on the 2009 festival.)  The new bridge has been built, it is set to open any day now, and the citizens of Sturgeon Bay are excited in anticipation of their iconic steel bridge being renovated.

Until last week, that is. Chairman of the Door County Board, Leo Zipperer, has asked Governor Jim Doyle to consider removing the historic Michigan Street Bridge in Sturgeon Bay. He wrote a letter to the governor, suggesting that the state has higher priorities than renovating the 70-year-old bridge. In an interview with WBAY television news (the ABC affiliate in Green Bay) Zipperer said he doesn’t want to see the bridge totally removed, just the troublesome bascule span.

Sturgeon Bay Alderman Jim Michaud thinks it’s ridiculous to tear down the bridge. In in the same report from WBAY Michaud said, “That’s the busiest street and the busiest thoroughfare in Door County.” While the new Oregon Street Bridge, due to open any day now, will relieve a great deal of traffic from the historical bridge, restoration will keep two extra traffic lanes open across the bay. “You can’t spend it in a better place,” Michaud said.

“To replace it, we now know takes $33 million. To repair it is a $14 million project, so it’s money well spent,” Michaud said.

Michigan Street Bridge, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
The bridge was built in 1930 and renovated in 1979. It has 12
through truss approach spans and the only overhead-truss, Scherzer-type,
double-leaf, rolling-lift bascule bridge in the state of Wisconsin.

Photo by David Yates, August 2008 Image © and Courtesy of Historic Bridges of the United States

No one seems to have estimated what it would cost to remove the bridge. As my friend, Professor Kevin Patrick from Indiana University of Pennsylvania says, “Bridges are expensive to put up, expensive to maintain, and expensive to tear down.” It’s already been decided to renovate the bridge, according to officials of the Wisconsin DOT. Those plans were announced on March 7, 2002 but since Jim Doyle has become governor, we’ve learned that you can’t really count on anything from Madison anymore. If the Governor is going to seriously consider overruling the Department of Transportation decision, then the cost of removing the bridge vs. the incremental cost of renovating the bridge should be considered. The better choice? Leave everything in place and renovate the beautiful old bridge.

Leo Zipperer stated that the money could be better spent due to the current economy. The American economy has always had ups and downs, but the effects of the economy are short term, while removal of the bridge is permanent. After it’s gone, it will be missed and when it’s decided that two extra traffic lanes across the bay are needed, as Jim Michaud said, it will cost $33 million to replace the bridge. That’s in 2008 dollars, who knows what it would cost to build a new bridge 10 years from now?

The concept of keeping the truss spans but removing the bascule span is just a dumb idea. That would be about as useful as making a pair of jean cut-offs by keeping the legs and throwing away the shorts.

I agree with Michaud, the renovation is money well spent to keep the extra traffic lanes open but that is just the added benefit of preserving a living piece of history, an icon of Sturgeon Bay, Door County and the State of Wisconsin.

The draw span of the 1,420 foot Michigan Street Bridge is
the only example of an overhead-truss, Scherzer-type, double-leaf,
rolling-lift bascule in the State of Wisconsin. Overhead truss
construction was utilized when a movable span was subject
to great stresses. Sturgeon Bay is like a wind tunnel and
the bridge was required to carry heavy vehicles, either force is a
great stress by itself. In addition, the span needs to offer a
clear 140 foot channel opening for ship passage. It was the
largest movable bridge in Wisconsin when it was built.

Both photos by David Yates, August 2008
Image © and Courtesy of Historic Bridges of the United States
and may not be reproduced without the permission.

See the Bridge Hunter website for more information about the Michigan Street Bridge and over 26,000 other historic bridges in the United States.

Last Summer, while in Iowa doing something else, I had the good fortune to be able to do some bridge hunting in the city of Cedar Rapids. Last week, every one of the bridges that I shot for the Historic Bridges Website was completely inundated by the rising waters of the Cedar River, which crested at a record 32 feet. One of the downtown bridges, a massive, four-span, railroad truss was washed away two days ago. EDITED TO ADD: Dramatic video of the bridge prior to, and just after the collapse, are available here, on The Weather Channel.

I did shoot the CRANDIC railroad bridge last Summer, although it did not get added to the Bridge Hunter site until a few days ago. Rail bridges are also of interest but difficult to document.

Many of the photos were taken from a location that I probably shouldn’t have been with my camera…

…but now, it’s a moot point and at least the bridge is partially documented.

It was built in 1903 but washed away in 2008.

The bridge did still carry a lot of daily traffic and actually, much road and rail traffic in Iowa is at a standstill right now because of the floods.

You can see more of the Linn County Bridges at the Bridge Hunter Linn County, IA website. Here’s hoping they’re all okay when the water goes back down.

The First Avenue Bridge carries Business US 151 and
The Lincoln Highway across Mays Island and the Cedar
River. It was completely under water this week.

The Second Avenue Bridge also crosses May Island. This span
crosses to the island from downtown. That’s the Veterans’ Memorial,
at least, the way it looked before the flood.

This span of the Second Avenue Bridge crosses from Mays
Island to the Southwest Quadrant of Cedar Rapids.

The Third Avenue Bridge also crosses to Mays Island. This span
comes from Mays Island to Downtown, from the Linn County
Courthouse. There is a parking lot below the deck of this bridge.

This span carries Third Avenue from the Southwest Quadarnt
of Cedar Rapids to the Courthouse on Mays Island.

The Twelfth Avenue Bridge and…

…Sixteenth Avenue Bridge are completely inundated by the
Cedar River this week.

This photo of Cedar Rapids looks northeast from the Southwest
Quadrant of the city. That’s I-380, curving to cross the river, parallel
to the First Avenue Bridge. In the top center of the photo is the shadow
of the Veteran’s Memorial. You can just see the tops of the
First Avenue and Second Avenue Bridge railings. Photo by Steve Pope.

2nd Avenue in downtown Cedar Rapids, looking northeast from the end
of the bridge that is shown above. Over 400 blocks were inundated. One water
pumping station is currently supplying water to the entire city, and it is
also in danger of being closed due to flooding. The river crested Friday at
32 feet, smashing the record of 20 feet, set in 1929. Photo by Jeff Roberson.

In the late 19th Century, the preferred method of transport in the United States was the railroad. Numerous railroad lines sprang up around the country to haul freight and carry passengers to their destinations. As the automobile, followed by the motor truck, became more and more practical, railroads began to fail. Many of the abandoned lines left behind long, straight alignments that became roads, today they are mostly recreational trails. Some of the bridges still exist and are being documented on James Baughn’s Bridge Hunter website, the topic of yesterday’s blog entry.

James is also documenting ferry crossings. One of the most impressive ferry crossings is the one that continues US 10 across Lake Michigan. The ferry, SS Badger, fulfills this continuation from April to October every year.

The SS Badger steaming into the harbor at Manitowoc.

The route also started out as a railroad. The Pere Marquette Railway, which had its primary trackage in Michigan, saw a need to get freight cars from Michigan to Wisconsin. The Pere Marquette did not have any tracks to the congested rail hub of Chicago, nor any trackage rights with other railroads to go through Chicago. The only alternative was to cross Lake Michigan from Ludington. In 1897, the PMR began to operate a car ferry on Lake Michigan and within a few years, had a fleet of six ferries operating between Ludington on the east shore, to Milwaukee, Manitowoc and Kewaunee on the west shore.

The Ann Arbor Railroad actually was the first to offer car ferry service in 1892. The Grand Trunk Railroad began car ferry service in the 1920’s.

The Pere Marquette operated the most successful of the ferry services from 1897 through 1947 with as many as 13 ferries in the operating fleet. In 1947, the PMR was absorbed into the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway and ferry service continued as the Pere Marquette District.

Many of the PM car ferries were built by Manitowoc Shipbuilding and, initially, they all bore the name “Pere Marquette.” The entire fleet had numbers appended to their names, so the fleet operated ferries such as the Pere Marquette 21 and Pere Marquette 22. Six ships were built to that same design, including the SS City of Milwaukee for the Grand Trunk fleet. The Pere Marquette 21 and 22 are long gone, but the SS City of Milwaukee is extant as a historical museum in the city of Manistee, Michigan.

In 1941, the PMR contracted with Manitowoc Shipbuilding to build a new ferry. The naming sequence of the Pere Marqutte names was broken with the City of Saginaw 31 and City of Flint 32 but the tradition of numbering the fleet continued, the new vessel christened the SS City of Midland 41.

In 1952, the Chesapeake & Ohio, new owners of the Pere Marqutte ferries, contracted with Christy Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to build sister ships that were to be the flagships of the fleet. They were named to honor universities in both states, the SS Badger and SS Spartan. (One can only speculate that the Spartan was so named because the Wolverines play in Ann Arbor, the same name of a competing ferry line.) The twins were put into service in 1953.

The peak of car ferry service was in the late 1950’s when an incredible amount of freight, passengers and automobiles made the Lake Michigan crossings. In the 1960’s, however, life in the United States began to change. Railroads were shrinking and merging. The Interstate Highway system was progressing and with the completion of a bypass around Chicago, driving times were reduced and the ferries became less important. On January 9, 1982, the Badger left Ludington for the last time as a Chessie System railroad car ferry.

A private operator attempted to continue the ferry service after purchasing the SS Badger, SS Spartan and SS City of Midland 41 from the Chessie System. The attempt failed.

In 1991, entrepreneur Charles Conrad purchased the fleet and refitted the Badger. On the car deck, the rails were paved over to accomodate automobiles and trucks. The former automobile deck was enclosed and made into a passenger area. Center staterooms were converted to a movie theatre, a quiet lounge and museum, arcade, children’s play area and a gift shop.

The slip in Ludington still has the wood-piered ramp that was used to load automobiles on the old Chessie ferries. With the old auto deck refitted to passenger space, this ramp no longer has a purpose.

The first cruise as a non-railroad car ferry was on May 15, 1992 and the Lake Michigan Carferry Service has never looked back.

The operators of the Badger dream about refitting and putting the Spartan back into service. For now, the Spartan is a source of parts to keep the Badger sailing.

At one time, plans called for the Spartan to be rechristened the Wisconsin Clipper, making runs between Milwaukee, Ludington and Muskegon. The plan never materialized and may never do so, with the 2004 inauguration of a competing high-speed ferry service between Milwaukee and Muskegon. However, some travelers feel that the slower Lake Michigan Carferry vessels could compete with the Lake Express by offering lower rates and/or service to Ludington from Milwaukee. The former Chessie route between Milwaukee and Ludington is missed by many. The Spartan could also ply the waters between Milwaukee and Muskegon offering a service that the Lake Express ferry cannot - hauling of huge trucks and oversize loads.

The SS Spartan is tied up in Ludington, adjacent to the main dock.

So long, Ludington! The cruise to Manitowoc will take about 4 hours, covering a distance of about 60 miles averaging 15 mph. A GPS screen in the passenger lounge allows cruisers to see where the ship is located during the voyage.

Welcome to Manitowoc! The screws are churning up water by thrusting forward against the momentum of the ship as she moves backwards toward the loading ramp.

The old railroad docks are still used for docking and loading. Note the yellow dogs that hold the stern to the bridge that links the cargo hold to the shore.

The SS Badger, shown here in her slip in Manitowoc, makes two crossings per day in Spring and Fall, four crossings per day during the peak Summer hours. The Badger sails May through October. For this voyage, she arrived in Manitowoc in the middle of the night. Check the Lake Michigan Ferry Service Schedule on their web page for more detailed information.

The trip across Lake Michigan via the Badger offers both a shortcut and a chance to relax. On a recent business trip that required travel from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Iron Mountain, Michigan, the Badger cut more than 300 miles from the drive and gave me a chance to sleep during the voyage. I’m looking forward to cruising Lake Michigan next Summer. You can, too.

Check the Lake Michigan Carferry Service website to see how you can cruise Lake Michigan. There is more to learn, if you like. The Pere Marquette Historical Society has a website, and if you would like to learn more about the history of the SS Badger and car ferry service on the Great Lakes, see The Car Ferries of the Great Lakes website. See you on board!

When I was a kid, family travel involved a lot of road trips in The Old Man’s Buick. There were no superhighways in those days, except for the Indiana Toll Road but it didn’t go where we wanted to go.

On US 45 in Tigerton, there was a steel through truss bridge that I loved. There was something about that bridge that I really liked. Perhaps it was the superstructure that was above the road surface. Perhaps it was the idea of entering the portal, traveling through the steel tunnel and leaving the exit portal. Perhaps it was just the idea of being enveloped in a web of steel while crossing the Embarrass River.

It’s gone today, replaced by a boring, unromantic, unstylish and ugly flat slab of concrete that crosses the Embarrass River, and if there weren’t a green sign telling you the name of the river, you’d never know there was a bridge there.

A “through truss” bridge is one in which the structure that holds up the bridge is above the roadway. Such bridges used to be common in Wisconsin but not so much anymore. This one, in Grant County, Wisconsin, is typical of the through truss bridge.

This sort of structure has always fascinated me.

Apparently, I’m not the only one. James Baughn is another man who has a fascination with bridges. He lives in Missouri and some time ago, he began to document historic bridges in Missouri to either help preserve them or, at least, record their existance before being replaced by, as James calls them, Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridges.

Before long, his Herculean task expanded to include historic bridges across the country. He has access to a list of all the extant, historic bridges. The list is broken down by state and then by county.

Since one person cannot document them all, he has developed a team of “bridge hunters.” A bridge hunter is a nut, like me, that loves old bridges. We search them out and document the bridges (photograph them, mostly) and send the photos to James for inclusion in his website. Often, he has access to historic records and can document even more interesting facts about a bridge.

For example, in rural Dubuque County, Iowa, there is a bowstring truss bridge that crosses the narrow Lytle Creek. The 113 foot bowstring arch-truss was built by the Massillon Bridge Company of Ohio in 1873. In it’s day, it was on a major thoroughfare and a vital link in the county. Now on a dead end road, the bridge currently serves one homestead. At one time, bowstring truss bridges were common in Iowa, but maintenance issues doomed them to be replaced by less troublesome designs. The change of this road to a dead end likely helped preserve this bridge, a pristine example of a once common, but now very rare, bridge design. Using James’ list, I was able to locate the bridge and document it.

James found a link to a historic database maintained by the Iowa DOT. The bridge has a most interesting history. You can see the bridge on his website and follow the link to the Iowa DOT historic bridge site.

http://bridgehunter.com/ia/dubuque/washington-mill/

The amount of travel that I do for my real job has allowed me to go hunting bridges in places I might not otherwise get to. I already knew of a couple of favorite bridges on the Lincoln Highway. This one, in Tama, Iowa, was built in 1915 and the name of the highway is cast into the railings.

Hunting bridges sometimes is an adventure in itself

not to mention, hanging over railings or stepping into muck is all part of the adventure. Sometimes walking, let alone driving, across some of these old bridges is an adventure in itself, like this old railroad bridge that crosses the Des Moines River.

If you’re fascinated by old architecture and old bridges, check out James Baughn’s Historic Bridge website. You might just turn into a Bridge Hunter, like us!

Historic Bridges of the United States.

The missing haven’t been found and the bodies aren’t even cold yet but the finger pointing has already started. Of course, if you listen to the usual suspects, the collapse is entirely George W. Bush’s fault.

Disclaimer: I am not a structural engineer nor a civil engineer nor do I play one on television. I’m simply a user of bridges, just as you are, but I’m also a fan of old highways and old bridges. I’ve been snooping around old bridges for a long time and I like to know about the surfaces I’m driving upon.

The media are tossing around terms without knowing, let alone explaining, what they mean. What, exactly, does “structurally deficient” and “functionally obsolete” mean? I’ve heard those terms used interchangeably when, in fact, they mean something completely different.

A functionally obsolete bridge might be perfectly safe. The term is applied to bridges that were built decades ago. In the 1920’s, decks were often only 20 feet wide, acceptable in the days of Model T Fords but designers did not anticipate the huge tractor/trailers and SUV’s that we have today. Rail heights probably do not meet current specs along with other difficulties, but certainly not problems. Most functionally obsolete bridges have been bypassed by more modern roads and most functionally obsolete bridges are extant on secondary roads.

In 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed between Point Pleasant, WV and Gallipolis, Ohio. The result was the National Bridge Inspection program. The NBI has a requirement that any bridge on a public highway, longer than 20 feet, be inspected periodically, typically every two years. In order to help determine which bridges needed attention, a scale is used called a condition rating. The NBI is a complex report, but for consumers, the key elements are the condition ratings assigned to the bridge’s deck, superstructure, and substructure. The “deck” is what you drive across, which is supported by the superstructure that, in turn, is supported by the substructure. These three areas are given a 0-9 rating determined by a federal guideline:

9 Excellent

8 Very Good

7 Good No problems noted.

6 Satisfactory Some minor problems.

5 Fair All primary structural elements are sound but may have minor section loss, cracking, spalling, or scour.

4 Poor Advanced section loss, deterioration, spalling, or scour.

3 Serious Loss of section, deterioration, spalling, or scour have seriously affected the primary structural components. Local failures are possible. Fatigue cracks in steel or shear cracks in concrete may be present.

2 Critical Advanced deterioration of primary structural elements. Fatigue cracks in steel or shear cracks in concrete may be present or scour may be removed substructure support. Unless closely monitored, it may be necessary to close the bridge until corrective action is taken.

1 Imminent Failure Major deterioration or section loss present in critical structural components, or obvious loss present in critical structural components, or obvious vertical or horizontal movement affecting structural stability. Bridge is closed to traffic, but corrective action may put back in light service.

0 Failed Out of service; beyond corrective action.

When a bridge has a rating of 4 or lower, it is labeled “Structurally Deficient.” This is not always bad, it typically means the bridge is in need of maintenance or repair. This was the case of the 35W bridge - it was not scheduled for replacement until 2020.

Bridges are also receive a sufficiency rating, which is a scale of 0-100. This is a convenient way to see what a bridge’s condition is to aid in making decisions about what bridge gets what attention and what bridge might be a candidate for replacement. The 35W bridge was rated near 50 - certainly not good but hardly a candidate for replacement. Many perfectly safe bridges seem to be in that range.

The 35W bridge was a deck truss, not commonly used in highway applications but is often seen on railroad spans. A deck truss has the truss superstructure below the deck surface. Older Wisconsin motorists are used to seeing what is called a “Through Truss” where the truss superstructure is above the deck. (Through trusses used to be very common but are being replaced all over Wisconsin.)

Until a failure investigation is completed on the 35W bridge, any frantic inspection of extant bridges is premature - inspectors need to know what failure points they are looking for.

(With a tip of the hat to James Baughn, the webmaster of http://www.bridgehunters.com and a fellow fan of old bridges and old highways.)