County: Dickinson
City/Township: Brietung Twp.
Location: US-141 / Menominee River.
Year Built: 1929
About this Bridge:
Located two miles southeast of Iron Mountain, this multiple-span steel bridge spans the Menominee River in a stretch between the Hydraulic Falls Dam and the Kimberly Clark Dam. The Niagra Bridge carries US-141 between Iron Mountain, in Michigan, and Niagra, in Wisconsin, on the line between the two states. The 473-foot structure has a steel deck girder superstructure, with six 80-foot spans supported high above the river by concrete abutments and piers. Completed in 1930, the Niagra Bridge was substantially rehabilitated in 1969, at which time the guardrails and deck were reconstructed and widened over cantilever brackets on the spandrel beams. The rehabilitation has changed the roadway appearance of the bridge, but the original superstructure beneath remains essentially unaltered.
The question of whether the State of Michigan had the authority to build a bridge jointly with Wisconsin was posed to the Michigan Attorney General in the 1915-1916 biennium. The proposed structure would span the Menominee River between Dickinson County, Michigan, and Florence County, Wisconsin, in the vicinity of Iron River. “In the absence of authority granted to you to enter into contracts with the proper authorities of other states,” the attorney general responded, “I am forced to the opinion that you may not properly do so. In the specific instance state, therefore, inasmuch as you have not the authority to make the necessary agreements with the Wisconsin officials concerned, the authority to construct the bridge, or a portion thereof, must necessarily be denied.” The legislature later granted MSHD the authority to construct interstate bridges, and by 1919 State Trunk Line Bridge over the Menominee – a three-span concrete arch structure – was completed. MSHD’s largest structure in the 1927-1928 biennium spanned the Menominee between the two states in Menominee County.
Two years after completion of the Menominee-Marinette Bridge, engineers in the two state highway departments began planning for another major structure over the Menominee between Iron Mountain and Niagra. The Niagra Bridge was erected in 1929-1930. Ceremoniously opened the next year, the bridge carried interstate traffic in unaltered condition until the late 1960s, when its roadway was widened and guardrails replaced. Now carrying US-141, the Niagra River Bridge functions in place without further alteration. It is historically significant as an important interstate link for vehicular traffic.
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