General Setting Looking South, Main Channel Bridge
Photo taken by Mark R. Fay, April 1987, for HAER
View photos at Library of Congress
BH Photo #119976
The Bridgeport Bridge replaced a private toll bridge that had been built here in 1857. The new bridge abutted the bluff above Bridgeport, redirecting traffic away from the town. A fire destroyed much of Bridgeport and a wood railroad trestle. The trestle was rebuilt, but the train no longer stopped in Bridgeport and today, it consists of only a few private residences.
In 1983, the Bridgeport Bridge, comprised of seven truss spans, was one of five remaining Pennsylvania trusses in the State of Wisconsin. However in the subsequent ten years, four of these uncommon truss bridges including the Bridgeport Bridge have been demolished. The Bridgeport Bridge was impressive in its overall length of 3400 feet, including one span over the slough, an intervening island, and nine spans over the main channel. Together with the Marquette-Prairie du Chien Bridge over the Mississippi River, begun in the same year, the Bridgeport Bridge represented the key to an improved transportation link between Iowa and Wisconsin.
NOTE: With the destruction of this, and the other remaining Pennsylvania truss bridges, the Cobban Bridge in Chippewa County is now the last remaining Pennsylvania overhead truss in the state.