In the March 21, 1906, editorial of the Yellowstone News, the headline read, “Will Erect Steel Bridge. The Proposition which has been pending for some time is now a sure thing – Will mean many dollars to the people of the Yellowstone Valley as well as the city of Mondak.”

The meeting was presided over by H.B. Hill. In attendance was the Hon. L. H. Johnson, Minneapolis, speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and experienced bridge builder. Johnson spoke at length on the kind of bridge that would be necessary to build in order to meet the needs of traffic and to withstand the inroads of the river. He estimated the cost of such a bridge at $200,000 and further stated if the people of Mondak and the Valley tributary could raise the sum of $50,000 the Hennepin Bridge Co., which he represented, would take upon itself the burden and responsibility of raising $150,000.

There were many times when the river was in a flood stage, or when ice was beginning to freeze in early winter, or breaking up in the spring making safe passage across the water impossible. Because there were no roads, only trails, there were many problems including mud to contend with, and horses were known to drop dead from the extreme exertion of a trip to town. Wagons were sometimes broken into bits going over the rough terrain. A railroad was the perfect solution. The new settlers looked eagerly for this to happen and passed on every bit of information and rumor they came across.

The building of the railroad finally got started in 1911. Officially listed as Bridge Number 12.1 by Burlington Northern. Snowden Bridge, also called Nohly Bridge, was constructed in 1913. It was designed by the renowned engineering firm of Waddell and Harrington. When completed, the bridge was the longest vertical lift bridge in existence and had the second largest clear opening of all movable bridges in the world. The Snowden Bridge is the only vertical lift bridge in Montana.

Consisting of five steel truss spans fabricated by the American Bridge Company, the bridge totals 1,159 feet in length with a 10-foot wide roadway and 22 feet in overhead clearance. In addition to the five steel spans, on the north side there were originally a 149 timber pile trestle approach, which totaled 2,098 feet in length. The entire length of the bridge and trestles measured 3,257 feet. Total construction cost of the bridge amounted to $465,367.

Situated over the old navigation channel, the lift span of the bridge measures 296 feet in length. This single span alone contains 1,142,614 pounds of steel. At each end of the lift span, steel towers supporting concrete counter-weights weighing 350 tons rose 108 feet above the bridge deck. A unique design feature of the bridge allowed the towers and counterweight to be moved to other spans in case of shifts in the navigation channel. The lift span could be raised 43 feet in about 30 minutes to allow 84 feet of clearance during normal water levels.

To lift these enormous counterweights, the bridge builders installed a three-cylinder kerosene engine in the lift house above the bridge. The engine is surrounded by a maze of axles and gears. In the event of an engine failure, the bridge could be raised by hand power. To do so, laborers would have to push long poles into a capstan, taking many hours to raise that section of the bridge.

Many workmen on the construction job were negroes from old Fort Buford or farther south. They suffered from the cold that first winter of 1912-1913. Stories are told of deaths of workers who fell from the span of the bridge into the open water at the site and drowned in spite of rescue efforts. Typical of North Dakota bridge lore, there is also a story of a worker who fell into the west concrete of the piers. Since there was no chance of a live rescue, he was buried in the concrete.

Planking was added to the bridge in 1925 to let vehicles cross and soon after that tolls were collected. In 1927, an automobile with a driver was assessed a 50 cent toll. Just about every kind of traffic was accountable: horses and cattle, 15 cents a head; truck and driver, 75 cents; saddle horses and driver, 15 cents. Even pedestrians had to pay a quarter to walk the three-fifth of a mile from trestle to trestle. The toll-collecting was discontinued in the 1950s when an electronic crossing signal system was installed.

The Snowden Bridge is, in a way, a victim of a historical irony. The vertical lift span was required by law to accommodate river traffic. At the same time, some steamboats were still plying their way up the Missouri with supplies and passengers. But the railroads, themselves made steamboat traffic obsolete.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Information compiled from Yellowstone News and the Fairview Times.