It is a story with local and national significance. . Kane, Rivalry, pp. . Annual Report, 1875, p. 302. II The Midwest, (The University of Alabama Press, 1973), pp. 68-74; Jane Carroll, Dams and Damages: The Ojibway, the United States, and the Mississippi Headwaters Reservoirs, Minnesota History, (Spring, 1990):4-5. Finally, and recognizing the emerging power of railroads, the state asserted that the river is now and ever will be and remain the great regulator and moderator of fares and freights among the rival carriers of the commerce of the west. Referring to the Civil War, the state implored Congress to recollect with what haste and facility the various railroad lines combined to increase the cost of travel, and double, and in some instances triple and quadruple, the cost of transporting the produce of the west during the late non-intercourse measures in the Lower Mississippi. The river would bind the country together again.77. . It required the company to spend $25,000 on the project before February 1, 1871. . Petersen, Steamboating, p. 298, also recognizes the railroad at Rock Island as the first to reach the river. While some arrived by way of the Great Lakes, many settlers entering Iowa, Minnesota and western Wisconsin made part of their journey on the upper river.6 Historian Roald Tweet contends that, The number of immigrants boarding boats at St. Louis and traveling upriver to St. Paul dwarfed the 1849 gold rush to California and Oregon.7 More than one million passengers arrived at or left from St. Louis in 1855 alone.8 As a result, the population of the four upper river states above Missouri ballooned between 1850 and 1860. More than 170 bridges (foot and railroad) span the Mississippi River on its journey from source to mouth. If lucky, they avoided hogging the boat; that is, warping or breaking its hull.24. Where steamboat pilots followed the deepest channel, as it hugged one shore or the other, leaning trees might sweep poorly placed cargo or an unwary passenger from a steamboat's deck. Hermann, Missouri - The CHRISTOPHER S. BOND BRIDGE is a highway bridge crossing over the Missouri River at Hermann on Route 19, between Gasconade and Montgomery County. Desiring to keep traffic flowing past their city, the citizens had attempted to close the Wisconsin channel but had been unsuccessful. Together, the Grange, shippers and merchants, boosters in river towns and the Windom committee persuaded Congress to authorize the 41/2-foot channel project. Grangers sought to control railroad rates through state and federal regulation and through improved navigation on the nation's rivers. Assistant Engineer W.A. Edward L. Pross, A History of Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Bills, 1866-1933, Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1938, p. 44. Low water was based on the rivers elevation in 1864, when a severe drought occurred. Harahan Bridge is a cantilever bridge completed in 1916. The flood advisory . After charging men under him to undertake the tributary surveys, Warren began the upper Mississippi survey from the Rock Island Rapids to Minneapolis himself. St. Paul and Minneapolis pushed especially hard. Born in Niles, Michigan, on the St. Joseph River, Merrick watched steamboats go back and forth between South Bend, Indiana, and the town of St. Joseph on Lake Michigan.17 When Merrick was 12 years old, his family left Michigan and traveled to Rock Island, Illinois. 44-45. . Overall the dam was 600 feet long and six to ten feet deep.62 From this experimental dam, channel constriction would grow into a comprehensive and expansive project that would reconfigure the upper river's landscape and ecology. The committee recommended that Congress authorize surveys and get cost estimates prepared as early as possible in order to mature a plan for the radical improvement of the river, and of all its navigable tributaries.58 The committee suggested that the Corps establish a channel of 41/2 to 6 feet for the upper Mississippi River.59 To create a channel of these depths, the committee acknowledged, would require constricting the river with wing dams and closing dams.60. This is the general phone line at the Mississippi River Visitor Center. Their effort resulted in one of the most mysterious and ill-fated projects on the upper river. In the mid-1800s, St. Louis was quickly losing steam (literally) to Chicago with the railroads. List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River - Wikipedia Barns credits Kelley with founding the Grange, recognizing the role of others, particularly of Miss Carrie Hall, Kelley's niece. Opponents to the amendment included waterpower magnates William D. Washburn and Richard Chute. From this work, Warren contended that in its natural state the Mississippi River's navigation channel frequently changed and that the Corps would have to survey the river each year until they understood how it worked.29 In some reaches, Warren reported, sandbars moved in waves along the channel bottom, looking something like snowdrifts. 651-293-0200 Bridging the Mississippi | National Archives Deep pools might run near one bank for a short reach and then jump to the other. . This iconic bridge spans the Missouri River in Kansas City. The Corps of Engineers was working on a project to save the falls. Hartsough, Canoe, pp. SEIRPC is assisting the City of Fort Madison in conducting a feasibility study of the Mississippi River Bridge crossing from Niota, Illinois to Fort Madison, Iowa. The "Big M" Hernando DeSoto Bridge, which opened in 1973, is in the news lately because a broken support beam has closed it to Interstate 40 traffic crossing high over the Mississippi River. He does not provide a location for this work and there is no mention of it in later reports, however. And Congress had authorized, that year, a sixth dam for the Headwaters, the one at Gull Lake. The millers recognized that the release of water from the reservoirs for navigation in the later summer and fall would increase the flow of water to keep their mills turning longer and more consistently. Portending the coming conflict with Minneapolis, St. Paul citizens criticized the project, as it would steal from them their valuable position as the head of navigation. 259, 262; Laws of the United States, pp., 155-56; H. Exec. Transportation systems have often determined the relationship of communities to the river. But in 1862, he left the river to fight in the Civil War. From St. Anthony Falls to downtown St. Paul, some 15 river miles, the river falls more than 100 feet. On June 23, 1866, Congress passed the first postwar River and Harbor Act. How many bridges across the Mississippi River? (HD) Crossing the Mississippi Railroad Bridge at La Crosse - YouTube Of the remainder, 214 (11%) have flashing lights, 134 (7%) have safety gates and 112 (6%) have stop signs. George Byron Merrick captures well the perils of sailing the natural river. The highest average daily traffic (ADT) count in the entire planning area, and one of the highest in the State of Iowa, is 77,000 ADT (2000) on the I-74 bridge over the Mississippi River. In many cases, railroad crossings on gravel roads are marked only by static crossbuck signs . In 1873, Congress lost patience with the Mississippi River Improvement and Manufacturing Company and appropriated $25,000 for the Corps to begin the project.85 But Congress required the state to return the land grant before the Corps could start. As water and ice eroded the sandstone out from underneath the limestone at the edge of the falls, the limestone broke off in large slabs, and the falls receded. These bridges include but are not limited to : Pons Mulvius, Pons Probi and Pons Aeilus. When the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad was completed in 1854 under the direction of Henry Farnam and his partner Joseph Sheffield, it became the first to connect the East with the Mississippi River. At Guttenberg, Iowa, an island split the river into two channels, one passing in front of the city and the other running along the Wisconsin side. Nevertheless, Farquhar optimistically asked for $300,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876.86 Disagreement over the grant and haggling over land for the project, including the purchase of Meeker Island, however, would delay the project for nearly 20 more years.87 St. Paul remained the head of navigation, and the Corps focused its efforts downstream. It was named after its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads. 29-30; Frederic L. Paxson, Railroads of the Old Northwest, before the Civil War, Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 17 (1914):257-60, 269-71. And the Midwest needed the South's cotton, rice, sugar, and molasses. They would have to focus the river's current into one main channel and block off the myriad side channels. Bison Bridge over Mississippi River could be boon for the heartland In October 1858, the G&CU directors proposed leasing a railroad bridge from Fulton, IL, to Lyons, IA, that was to be built by an independent company strictly controlled by the G&CU The CI&N, however, made known its intention to bridge the Mississippito the considerable displeasure of the G&CU. As Anti-Monopoly parties threatened to undermine the Republican party's dominance in the state and nationally, Windom and other Republicans began working for railroad reform and began seeking ways to solve the farm crisis.54, As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Transportation to the Seaboard, Windom was in an especially good position to help both farmers and his party. The 4 uppermost railroad bridges spanning the Mississippi were located adjacent to each other in Bemidji, Minnesota. Historians generally agree that with the Civil War's end the federal government took a very different position on internal improvements. This is a list of bridges and other crossings of the Missouri River from the Mississippi River upstream to its source (s). He lists 99 boats counting for 965 arrivals in 1857 and 62 boats as accounting for the 1,090 arrivals in 1858. Prior to the war, with a few exceptions, Congress and/or the President had opposed a federal role in internal improvements.26, The 1866 act provided for the first project to focus on the whole upper river.27 It directed the Corps to survey the Mississippi River between St. Anthony Falls and the Rock Island Rapids, with a view to ascertain the feasible means, by economizing the water of the stream, of insuring the passage, at all navigable seasons, of boats drawing four feet of water. The river pioneers once forded with their wagons and livestock no longer existed. Cadwallader C. Washburn and his brother William D., the Minneapolis Mill Company's owners and two of the city's most powerful and prominent millers, adamantly opposed locks and dams. As it had learned more about the upper Mississippi River, the Corps had recognized the futility of keeping the river navigable by dredging.61 In 1874, when the Montana could not dredge due to high water, the Engineers refitted it with a pile driver and went to Pig's Eye Island, five miles below St. Paul (Figure 8). At Rock Island in 1856, the Chicago and Rock Island became the first railroad to cross the Mississippi. . 341, pp. PDF Executive Summary 6 16 06 - Tennessee Under steam power, people and goods could be transported upstream far more quickly and in greater numbers and quantities than on boats with sails or oars or poles. . he concluded, calling on Congress to appropriate funding for every navigable stream in the West and to open the natural outlets free to all.47 To restore river traffic, Kelley insisted that the Mississippi needed grants like those given to railroads, and the Grange had to establish an agent in St. Louis to buy and sell Minnesota's products. 65-66; Roald Tweet, A History of Navigation Improvements on the Rock Island Rapids, (Rock Island District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, April 1980):2; John O. Jensen, Gently Down the Stream: An Inquiry into the History of Transportation on the Northern Mississippi River and the Potential for Submerged Cultural Resources, Wisconsin Archeologist 73:1-2 (March-June, 1992):71, says that only about 20 boats were operating above Galena before 1847. Thebes in 2010 They divided the upper Mississippi into a series of deep pools separated by wide shallows that sometimes stranded even the lightest steamboats. Lock and Dam 2 (the Meeker Island Lock and Dam) could then be placed about 2.9 miles upstream, below Meeker Island, and would have a lift of 13.8 feet. A thick limestone mantle formed the riverbed. For those wanting a more immersive train ride, book your seat on the Hiwassee Loop, a 50-mile trip that takes you through the wilderness, crossing over other tracks and winding up the mountain.Its views of the Hiwassee River Gorge are exceptional in the fall, but it's still a great ride any time of year. . (Library of Congress) I saved an image of the satellite view because the construction barges and new piers indicate a new bridge is being built. Military supplies and furs would dominate the much smaller steamboat trade above Galena. While the river naturally eroded its banks, closing dams and wing dams accelerated erosion by increasing the channel's velocity and volume. Below the island, no deep channel existed at low water. Transportation officials in both states are studying plans that include possibly replacing the 55-year-old span. . This misplaces the authority for authorizing the project with the Corps instead of Congress and makes the Corps a proactive proponent of the project, which she does not demonstrate they were. . The wing dams' success depended upon the main channel's volume and velocity. Over the next year, the Grange founded nearly 12,000 chapters and claimed over 858,000 members. The conference organizers' goal was to impress upon these key political officials the depth of the shipping crisis. No. Doc. What's the longest bridge that crosses the Mississippi River? The best market for the Midwest's corn, flour, pork, and beef, it claimed, was the South. By authorizing the 41/2-foot channel project, Congress directed the Corps to remake the upper Mississippi. Rock Island District, Corps of Engineers, Railroad Monopolies The Midwests need to receive and send out goods grew as rapidly as its population and agricultural production. In response to their lobbying, Congress authorized four broad projects to improve navigation on the upper river and a number of site-specific projects in the Twin Cities metropolitan area since 1866. The National Weather Service issued a flood warning Tuesday for the Mississippi River at La Crosse and Winona. Annual Report, 1872, pp. Missouri's highest bridge is the Christopher S. Bond Bridge in Kansas City. From the building boat, Alberta Kirchner recalled, . Interstate 29/35 or US 71 takes you over it. The Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River could be closed for weeks, if not longer, because of damage that could have led to "a catastrophic event.". As this requirement had proven cumbersome, the company asked Congress to modify it to allow for the sale of more sections within a single township. (29) The Paris Road Bridge (State Route 47), about 4.4 miles east of the junction with Inner Harbor Navigation Just past the crest, the channel quickly became deeper.30 Normally, the river would begin cutting through the steep slope on the back side of the bar and another bar would eventually begin forming downstream of it. City of Fort Madison: Mississippi River Bridge Feasibility Study That got me to rooting around for some of the photos I've shot of it over the years. For purposes of the study, it was assumed that each of the highway corridor alternatives should also be considered as rail corridor alternatives at the outset. From the Open Air platform of an Observation Car, cross the Milwaukee Road, Now Canadian Pacific, bridge that crosses the Mississippi River at La Crosse Wisconsin. William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West, (New York:W. W. Norton & Company, 1991), p. 296, says that the first railroad to reach the Mississippi River was the Chicago, Alton and St. Louis in 1852-53. Bridge 29-10-04 Wright Railroad over Sugar River, Sullivan County, NH, closed to traffic. As Mackenzie anticipated, Congress, under pressure from Minneapolis to do something, provided $50,000 to the Corps to remove boulders, which the Engineers did during the summer of 1890 and in 1891. The Headwaters project provided for construction of the Winnibigoshish Dam in 1883-1884 and the completion of dams at Leech Lake (1884), Pokegama Falls (1884), Pine River (1886), Sandy Lake (1895), and Gull Lake (1912). 1780-81. In December 1872, he had introduced a resolution to address the transportation problem. 2, Appendix CC, Reports on Transportation Routes to the Seaboard, p. 455. 106-7. Thomas A. Bridges & Tunnels of Amtrak Country This Week In Illinois History: First Railroad Crosses Mississippi River . List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River, Road Bridge (Clearwater County Road 117Wilderness Drive), Mississippi, Hill City and Western Railway Co Rail Bridge, New I-94 and Highway 10 Interregional Connection Bridge, Coon Rapids Dam pedestrian and bicycle bridge, Canadian Pacific Camden Place Rail Bridge, Northern Pacific-BNSF Minneapolis Rail Bridge, St. Paul Union Pacific Vertical-lift Rail Bridge, Winona Green Bay and Western Rail Bridge (historical), Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, Davenport, Rock Island and Northwestern Railroad, Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, Illinois Traction System interurban electric railway, Southern Illinois and Missouri Bridge Company, List of crossings of the Lower Mississippi River, List of locks and dams of the Upper Mississippi River, Lake Itasca State Park Map at Minnesota DNR, "East Channel Wisconsin Central Railroad Bridge, WC Railroad Mississippi River Crossing", "East Channel Railroad Bridge BNSF Railroad Mississippi River Crossing", http://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesA/umissA12.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_crossings_of_the_Upper_Mississippi_River&oldid=1138454683, Clearwater County Road 117 (Wilderness Drive), Beltrami County Road 5 (Centerline Rd SW), 1-mile (1.6km) east of current USFS Rt. "Although Arkansas cars could cross the Mississippi River at Memphis beginning in 1917 rather than having to drive to the . Congress, however, would soon authorize new projects for the upper Mississippi River that would make this impossible. 3D Satellite. To steamboats, even half a foot was important. Quincy and Cairo, Illinois, became railheads in 1856, and East St. Louis, Illinois, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1857. Annual Report, 1895, pp. Solon J. Buck, Granger Movement, A Study of Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic and Social Manifestations, 1870-1880, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933), pp. He learned that Minneapolis and St. Anthony (the community on the rivers east bank that merged with Minneapolis in 1872) had funded the removal of boulders to encourage steamboats to travel above St. Paul. The bridge connected the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad in Illinois and the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad in Iowa. The young Daly recalled in his memoir that he could distinctly hear the grinding of her bottom on the gravel bar over which she was passing.23 Some boats ground to a halt on sandbars. Download the official NPS app before your next visit. 2, 62nd Cong., 3d sess., Doc. He estimated that Lock and Dam 1 would cost $568,222 and that Lock and Dam 2 would cost $598,235. Where the buffalo roam: world's longest wildlife bridge could cross the By dividing the river, islands limited the water available to the navigation channel and thereby its depth. 2 new Mississippi River crossings in MN planned, studies underway The Mississippi River lies entirely within the United States. No. Annual Report, 1908, pp. 65 Annual Report, 1880, p. 1495. So they actively participated in local, regional and national campaigns for navigation improvement. p. 213. 1, 62nd Cong., 3d sess., Doc. The river passed over the closing dams when high, but for most of the year, the dams directed water into the main channel, denying flow to the river's side channels and backwaters (Figure 10). Islands created dangerous currents.13 From just below Hastings to St. Anthony Falls roughly 40 islands broke the rivers flow. 67-68; Duties for the middle Mississippi stayed with the Office of Western Improvements in Cincinnati until 1873, when St. Louis became the new office for the middle river; see Dobney, River Engineers, pp. Minneapolis had captured title to the head of navigation, but the low dams had eliminated St. Pauls hope for securing hydropower. It came at the insistence of the states, farmers, business interests and the general public. He would become one of the Senate's strongest advocates for railroad regulation and navigation improvement.52, The rapidly growing strength of the Granger movement in Minnesota and the threat of railroad monopolies spurred Windom to address the transportation issue with zeal. As the state failed to return it, the Corps did not begin work. From the St. Croix to the Illinois River it varied from 18 to 24 inches.15 A few miles below St. Paul, the river sometimes became so shallow that boats would have to stop within sight of the city.16 The folklore that people once waded across the Mississippi is true. 109, pp. Before 1906, the important problem of the arrangement was largely left to the judgment of local engineers. 319-320; Kane, St. Anthony, p. 96. A wave would start at the head of the reach and begin moving down, even when the current slowed. In 1872, Captain J. Throckmorton argued that while wing dams would probably not work for the upper river, closing dams would. The remaining maps focused on problem reaches or detailed the river near a specific town.32 From these maps and from what he would learn about early navigation improvements, Warren began planning the 4-foot channel project. Nora G. Hertel. La Crosse, Wisconsin, joined these cities, becoming the terminus of the Milwaukee and La Crosse in 1858. By narrowing the river and thereby increasing the main channel's velocity, the Corps hoped to scour one uninterrupted navigation channel the length of the upper river.63 Wing dams, closing dams and shore protection required two simple components: willow saplings and rock. Annual Report, 1873, p. 411; Annual Report, 1874, p. 287. Hundreds of miles of riverbank had been secured with riprap. Warren asked private companies and local interests what work they had done to improve the river's navigability. Posted . Monticello Baptist Church was live. - Facebook The Senate also considered a warning from Republican President Ulysses Grant. . This map shows the completion dates at various points along the route westward from Chicago. But the economic panic of 1857 and the Civil War ended further railroad expansion across the Mississippi. Havighurst, A Wilderness Saga, p. 161. Now the people of eastern Iowa could reach New York City by rail in no more than forty-two hours. Droughts had the same effect, but could last an entire season. When it opened in 1892, the Frisco was the third-longest bridge in the world and was the first to span the Mississippi south of St. Louis. The many islands dividing the river disbursed the little water available into side channels and sloughs. Meeker, Kane says, retained some shares of the company for himself, as did his friends. Rising in Lake Itasca in Minnesota, it flows almost due south across the continental interior, collecting the waters of its . Annual Reports, 1867, pp. The Wabasha Avenue bridge was the first to cross the Mississippi River in the city of St. Paul, built in the 1880s and replaced amid controversy in the 1990s. So, commercial leaders in Minneapolis, supported by the State of Minnesota, sought federal support for navigation improvements in 1866. From Minneapolis' perspective, the channel improvement works on the upper Mississippi River only benefitted its principal rivalSt. This also caused some delay. Between 1866 and 1869, three more railroads crossed the river to Iowa, and by 1877, thirteen railroad bridges spanned the upper river (Figure 5).40 Railroads greatly increased the countrys ability to move commodities, and, yet, railroads would provoke and inflame a shipping crisis. His figures for arrivals differ slightly from those of Dixon in Table 2.1. Congress initially balked at the projects pork-barrel appearance. A bad bar could sever St. Pauls and Hastings connection with St. Louis, the Gulf of Mexico and the world.14 Normally, during the late summer or early fall, the river began falling and would enter the stage steamboat pilots and Corps engineers called low water. The Engineers or their contractors placed the rock and brush in layers until a dam rose above the water surface to a level that would guarantee a minimum 41/2-foot channel (Figure 9).64. 1; see U.S. Congress, House, Survey of the Upper Mississippi River, Exec. Walter Havighurst, Upper Mississippi, A Wilderness Saga, (New York: Farrar & Rinehart; New York: J. J. Cloud) / 2nd Street North (Sauk Rapids), First Street North/East Saint Germain Street, 42nd Avenue North to 37th Avenue Northeast, Wisconsin Central Boom Island Rail Bridge, Pedestrian and Bicycle traffic North end of, Abandoned Wisconsin Central Railway over East channel connecting via former tracks on Nicollet Island to Boom Island bridge, BNSF Railway over Nicollet Island East channel, BNSF Railway over the main river channel West of Nicollet Island, First Avenue over river channel East of Nicollet Island, East Hennepin Avenue over river channel East of Nicollet Island, Hennepin Avenue over main river channel West of Nicollet Island, Merriam Street over East channel of Nicollet Island, 10th Avenue South to 6th Avenue Southeast (demolished), Former Rock Island Railroad and 66th Street East to 3rd Avenue East, Canadian Pacific Railway (Former Milwaukee Road), This page was last edited on 9 February 2023, at 19:58. The Lafayette is the longest, at . Zebulon Pike and Stephen Long both not only commented on how confined the river became above Hastings, they rowed its width to see how few strokes they needed. branch, . Henry P. Bosse. Subsequent engineers reduced this number to six. Boats requiring an opening may not pass. Traveling eastbound from. Whatever products the Midwest came to manufacture, like woolen and cotton fabrics, would find their chief market in the South and Southwest. 58, p. 5. Railroads have got enough for the present. .65 Once the willow mats had been laid in the water, the workers would sink them with rock. Some people living near Mississippi River adapt to flooded homes In its petition, the state stressed that boats had frequently landed within two and one-half miles of downtown Minneapolis, up until 1857. In 1854 the Minnesota Pioneer,a St. Paul newspaper, reported that passengers and freight overflowed from every steamboat that arrived and that the present tonnage on the river is by no means sufficient to handle one-half the business of the trade.3 While two steamboats often left St. Paul each day, they could not carry goods away as quickly as merchants and farmers deposited it, and many upper river cities mirrored St. Paul.4 Each steamboat that docked created new business and a greater backlog, as more immigrants disembarked to establish farms and businesses.5, Spurred by Indian land cessions that opened much of the Midwest between 1820 and 1860, by Iowa's statehood in 1846 and Wisconsin's in 1848 and by the creation of the Minnesota Territory in 1849, passenger traffic on the upper river boomed. Bradley B. Meeker and Dorilus Morrison formed the Mississippi River Improvement and Manufacturing Company in 1857, with a group of Minneapolis businessmen, to develop this potential. This page is not available in other languages. No. But, as a result of the economic panic beginning that year, a number of unprecedented droughts and the Civil War, navigation, they brashly claimed, had receded some sixteen miles, to St. Paul, where all the freight destined to these cities, (Minneapolis and St. Anthony) and the vast regions north and west . In this act, Congress directed the Corps to extend navigation to the Washington Avenue Bridge by constructing Lock and Dam 2.91 While it did not mention Lock and Dam 1, Congress called for improving the river from near the mouth of the Minnesota River to the Washington Avenue Bridge, indicating that another lock and dam would be built below Meeker Island.