![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bismarckmandanblog.com\/images\/memorial_bridge_26645.jpg\")
<\/center>By this time next year, the crews should be nearing completion of the new Liberty Memorial Bridge and figuring out what to do with the old one. I’m as sentimental as the next guy, but I agree that it’s time to replace this local landmark. It’s a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless.<\/p>\nI remember the long treks to Bismarck made by my family when I was a little boy growing up in western Montana. We would come back home to visit family in Bismarck and Dickinson every now and then, and I remember the Memorial Bridge because of its grated deck. I always thought that “the humming bridge” was the coolest, because we could look out the window and see the river below. How cool was that?<\/p>\n
Later on, I learned that the grated deck was pretty freaky on a motorcycle…not because I could see through it, but because that grated deck made the tires “swim” back and forth just like it did the car tires! It’s a little more discomforting when you’ve only got two of ’em. Looking down was actually more fun without having to stick my head out a window, and I did eventually get used to the slight weaving sensation. Relaxing and letting it happen was safer than trying to fight it, actually.<\/p>\n
Then came the concrete deck. I’m no engineer, but this never seemed like a good idea. If there’s a problem with the bridge, loading it up with tons of new concrete and steel doesn’t seem like the greatest idea! But it was done, the “humming bridge” hummed no more, and the only view of the water below was from the walkway. I suppose it’s easier to say goodbye to the bridge now because we really said goodbye to it nearly twenty years ago. The deck that gave the bridge its character hasn’t been around since the early 1990s.<\/p>\n
I had a lady call me a couple of weeks ago looking to purchase a photo of the bridge. She saw a poster-sized print of the bridge photo at the head of this website last year at the Mandan Art Show (it won People’s Choice, by the way!) and wanted to know if it was the Memorial Bridge. Sadly, it’s not…it’s the railroad bridge. But she got me digging through my photos to see what I had of the Memorial Bridge. I’m glad she did, because I really didn’t have much of anything at all! You know that that means: time to scramble and get as many nice photos of the bridge as possible, because soon I won’t be able to do so. The photo above is part of that quest.<\/p>\n
It’s getting difficult to photograph the Memorial Bridge already without getting cranes and footings and stuff in the shot. Time’s a-wasting; if you want to have some memories of this bridge, you’d better hurry!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By this time next year, the crews should be nearing completion of the new Liberty Memorial Bridge and figuring out what to do with the old one. I’m as sentimental as the next guy, but I agree that it’s time … Continue reading