Photos
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Milwaukee River Here is what the Milwaukee River bridges looked like before WWII, looking south from the First Wisconsin Bank Building.
The first bridge is Wisconsin Avenue, the one that this bridge replaced. The overhead poles carry the catenary for streetcars. Note the skew angle, more on that later. The next bridge is the Michigan Street Bridge, replaced in 1978, followed by Clybourn Street, that bridge was replaced in 1968. The one in the far distance carried Buffalo Street. That bridge was removed in the early 1970's and was not replaced. The bridge lives on, though, in scenes of a movie entitled Gaily, Gaily from 1969, in scenes shot using the bridge as a background. Photo from the Milwaukee Public Museum Collection, used with permission. |
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The North Face As seen from the river walk. Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008 |
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The West Approach Note the severe angle that this bridge must follow to connect east and west Wisconsin Avenue. Two of the three founders of Milwaukee, Solomon Juneau and Byron Kilbourn, were such rivals that they laid out their street grids so the east-west streets did not align. As a result, all of the downtown bridges are skewed.
Click on the link below, titled "Milwaukee Movable Bridges" for more of the story. Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008 |
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The Deck and Control Tower Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008 |
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Gertie The Duck Memorial Statue In 1945, a project to replace pilings under the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge had to be delayed, because Gertie has built her nest on the pilings. She laid six eggs, hatched five and raised her brood under the bridge. Milwaukeans followed her story in daily updates in The Milwaukee Journal and the story traveled around the world.
Two native Milwaukeeans, stationed in England, read about Gertie on the front page of Stars and Stripes and were inspired to write a children's book that was published in 1959. It has been translated into several languages and over copies 800,000 were sold. Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008 |
