We drive across it, many of us on a daily basis, and mostly we don’t pay it much attention.
But looking down from the top of the bluff, or from either side along the street or riverfront
trail, it’s easy to see why Rock Island’s Centennial Bridge has become an icon for the entire
Quad-City area. Its five arches gracefully skipping across the Mississippi are light and open,
yet the strong "X" cross braces convey sturdiness and strength.
Bridges are important here, where a wide river separates communities. For decades, the
Government/Sylvan Bridge was the only land connection between Iowa and Illinois here. Usually
folks took a ferryboat across the river. Then people started buying cars and wanted to get them
across the water, too. In 1935 a newly-formed Davenport Bridge Commission built an elegant
suspension toll bridge between Moline and Bettendorf. Now it is the eastern (Iowa bound) half
of the I-74 "twin" bridges, and has an uncertain future.
For years, Rock Island wanted another land connection across the river. In the 1930s, a joint
Davenport-Rock Island commission studied a proposal to build a tunnel from the foot of 18th Street
in Rock Island to Brady Street in Davenport. Even before Rock Island Mayor Robert P. Galbraith was
first elected 1937, he was determined that a crossing would be built. Since the tunnel concept had
already been eliminated, a bridge it would have to be.
When the commission told the mayor that the bridge would be impossible without massive federal
intervention, Mayor Galbraith was undeterred. Davenport and Rock Island would build their own bridge.
Then Iowa refused to take part in any funding efforts, so the mayor said that Rock Island would just
have do it alone. Although unsuccessful in obtaining any WPA funding, he finally developed a plan to
sell revenue bonds for construction. The bonds would then be paid off by the tolls from bridge users.
Rock Island was in the bridge business.
An engineering survey of the Illinois shoreline suggested 15th Street as the best bridge location,
linking to the foot of Western Avenue in Davenport. However the city of Davenport insisted it be moved
a block west to its current Gaines Street location, which resulted in the need for the curve at the Iowa
end of the bridge and also added $40,000 to its cost.
The bridge was designed by the firm of Ash, Howard, Needles and Tammen, a company still in existence
as HTNB. R. N. Bergendoff, the brother of Augustana College president Dr. Conrad Bergendoff, directed
the engineering efforts. Engineer Edward (Ned) Ashton of Iowa City was reported to be the chief designer
of this "tied arch" design for the bridge. Each arch is structurally independent of the others. The
two center arches are higher than the end ones, providing a wider navigation span beneath.
During its construction year starting in March of 1939 it was informally called the "Galbraith Bridge."
Two months before its dedication on July 11, 1940, Mayor Galbraith declined to have the bridge officially
named in his honor He suggested, instead, that it be named the Centennial Bridge, in recogition of Rock
Island’s upcoming centennial year.
The dedication and grand parade across the bridge attracted unprecedented crowds for the celebration.
The Argus published a special Progress Edition for the occasion that is well worth looking up at the public
library. Special features of our new bridge were noted:
- First four-lane bridge across the Mississippi
- One of the few major bridges built recently without federal aid
- Financed entirely with private capital, not taxpayer obligation
- A "splendid example" of the uncommon tied-arch method of construction
- Equipped with "golden" sodium vapor lights for safety
- Cost $500,000 less than predicted (total cost was $2.5 million)
Our postcard, published in the mid 1940s, is a view is from atop the courthouse. The structure in the
left foreground is a long-since-removed cupola on an also removed dome. The image on the card appears to
be a drawing rather than a photograph, since the stone entrance pylons are shown, but the original waterfall
fountains are not. The grooves around the top of the pylons match a similar detail on the Bridge Commission
building at Second Avenue. Although all five arches of the bridge are visible, the streamlined maroon center
toll booth is not shown.
A major change in the bridge came in 1960 when new access from First Avenue was added. At that time the
waterfalls were rotated slightly so the roadway could be widened. At some time, a large clock above the
tollbooths was removed. In 1988, the bridge arches were lighted, making it as visible at night as it is in
the daytime.
Finally, in a dream come true, the State of Illinois assumed the maintenance and repair of the bridge in
2005. Prior to that time, many changes were mandated. Although tolls were eliminated in May, 2003, it took
another two years of construction to remove the center toll booth, modify the approaches to accommodate
increased traffic, and make many other repairs and improvements deemed necessary.
When the approaches were modified, the historic pylon on the west was dismantled, the stones numbered,
and then reassembled a short distance away. The skill and care exhibited during that process earned City
of Rock Island a RIPS Preservation Award for 2005.
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