website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown,
Wisconsin
Cady Street Bridge
First
Constructed in 1874
Pre
1874 there
was no bridge
Click to enlarge
View, pre 1874, from Main St Bridge, of Cady Street before bridge
was constructed in 1874
1874
12 31 View south from bridge
The
Iron Bridge, known as the Cady Street bridge, is now in course of construction,
which is all right, and no one is opposed to have a passage over Rock River at
that point. But it seems the city, or
rather the sapient Committee on Streets and Bridges, have got themselves in
something of a scrap. We are told the
contractors for building the bridge insisted on the city furnishing the
measurements from abutment to pier, and from pier to pier on each span. The committee on Streets and Bridges took
this job, which they never ought to have done, but to have compelled the
contractors to make their own measurement, as is usually the case. The committee made the measurement, and at
the same time made a mistake of some six feet as to the length of one of the
arches. The consequence is that in
making the castings, the east arch projects some six feet beyond the abutment,
and cannot be fastened on it and made secure and permanent as it should be.
Here
is a pretty kettle of fish - the old story of meddling and muddling whatever a
set of stupid ignoramuses undertake. We
should like to know how long the upright, fair-minded men of this city purpose
[propose] to submit to this chronic kind of folly before they awake to the
necessity of taking public affairs into their own hands, as they can do any
moment when they see fit to arouse themselves to the earnest efforts
imperatively demanded by the crisis. WD
1886
Cady St
Bridge and Rock River, view from Main St Bridge, looking north, 1886
c1895
View north, from Main St bridge, c1895
