B-33-002
WisDOT Designation: Local – Town-owned
Current Owner: Town of Gratiot
Year Built: 1952
County: Lafayette County
Crossing: Pecatonica River
Bridge Category: Riveted, Warren pony truss
Spans and Type: 1 span, overhead truss
Overall Length and Width: 125½ feet x 20½ feet
National Register of Historic Places Status: Determined Eligible for listing in the National Register
Details
This bridge has a single span that measures 120 feet long and a concrete, cast-in-place deck with a bituminous surface. The deck rests on steel I-beams stringers and is supported by concrete abutments. The stringers are intersected by three floor beams, which are laterally braced with cross-bracing that is connected by intersection plates and riveted to the bottom chord. The bridge has fixed shoe bearings.
History
A 120-foot steel and wood bridge carrying a road over the Pecatonica River was constructed in 1871 near this location. An 1881 map shows a road crossing Pecatonica River west of the Village of Riverside and railroad tracks, north of the Village of Gratiot in Section 4. On a map from 1895, the road was called Bridge Street and appears to have two bridges crossing the river near the flour mill owned by V.C. George, and C.C. Gille. At that time the town also had a school. The mill closed around 1910. Both bridges are extant on the 1916 map.
On July 1, 1951, a pickup truck hit the guardrail on the bridge, which caused the structure to slip from its rock foundation into the river on July 3, 1951. A new bridge was opened in December 1951 and was positioned at the site of the original bridge but sits above the river approximately 4 feet higher.
Nearly all bridges built in Wisconsin in the 1950s were deck-type bridges with all supporting structural members below the roadway. The Riverside Bridge, as it came to be known, is one of five truss bridges built in the state between 1950-54, which represented less than 1 percent of all bridges constructed during that period.