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Old Bridges 1902-1937 - digital images

2023.10.27

Digital scan

Clipson BreweryBridge, Blue Star Highway 1936

Transportation: bridgesBuildings: Lost

Winthers, Sally

Digital data in CatalogIt

These image(s) were copied from the SDHC photo blog [or the Jack Sheridan drive if that was a superior version] in preparation for updating the SDHC website in 2023. The location of an original or printed version of these photos was unknown at the time of cataloging.

https://sdhistoricalsociety.org/Newsletter/2011/nov11/nov11_newsletter.htm The Bridge and The Bridges by Jack Sheridan ... Depending on how you define bridges there have been a number of them between Saugatuck and Douglas. The first was located in Saugatuck where the chain ferry crosses now. The next was fifty yards north of where it is today and of course the present freeway bridge to the southeast. The photo was taken in the summer of 1936 and at that time this causeway was the biggest fill project in the whole State. The new bridge was under construction to the left and not visible in this photo. The bridge and causeway replaced the 1901 bridge that was actually two bridges. On the Saugatuck side and visible in this photo is a steel truss bridge. Small boats could pass beneath it but the water was probably shallow. Then there was a causeway of maybe a hundred yards leading to the main bridge which was a swing bridge over the deep channel. It was about seventy feet in length and pivoted on a piling in the middle of the channel. It was opened with a geared lever powered by an attendant who lived in a house next to the bridge. ...

04/01/2023

03/30/2024