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OLD BRIDGE DAYS: We Started Out With Toll Spans, Why Go Back?

December 31, 2017       2 Comments
By: Dave Rogers

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The Third Street Bridge was the first to span the Saginaw river connecting Bay City and West Bay City. It was constructed from wood and opened in 1865. (Bay-Journal.com)
 

Let's go back a bit in time, bridgewise, since that is apparently the conversation that may dominate our new year of 2018 locally.

Don't ever think that controversy has never been part of bridges in Bay City; just the opposite it seems from a historical perspective. There is not enough space here to document the years of wrangling over bridges more than a century ago, a process that appears to be re-creating itself now.

'Great as was the value of the river in the development of Bay City, it proved to be a hindrance when people on one side had business on the other," wrote George E. Butterfield in 1957 in "Bay County Past and Present."

The early skiff ferry at Third Street cost five cents each way; even then many people crossed in their own boats, Butterfield noted. Ten cents was a heavy cost for men who made only about a dollar a day in the mills.

It was big news when a wooden bridge at Third Street was opened in 1865. Foot passengers paid three cents, a horse was a dime, a horse and wagon 13 cents and a yoke of oxen 15 cents.

In 1876, the Third Street Bridge was rebuilt with steel at a cost of $18,000 and the old wooden span moved to connect Twenty-Third Street with Salzburg Avenue.

"Bay City could then boast of two toll bridges and two ferries for crossing the river," wrote Mr. Butterfield.

Alan Flood, the retired mariner, and historian has found newspaper accounts stating: "The people did not like to pay the toll. Many people, on both sides of the river, after they had paid their two cents at the toll gate and passed the bridge used to stop and swear awhile at the situation."

During several years of arguments about whether the city or the county should acquire the bridge and paying for repairs, the Bay City Tribune commented: "It has been observed that the common council of Bay City has long been eminent for its incapacity to deal with matters of large importance. But in the meantime, the public demanded a free bridge."

In 1882 voters approved $25,000 in taxation but the bridge owners wanted more. So the county optioned land near the old bridge and launched plans for the construction of a new one. "But as it was evident that a free bridge one block from the foot of Third Street would destroy the value of the company's bridge, the owners accepted $22,000 for the bridge."

The County Board of Supervisors offered to give the bridge to the city free, but it was not accepted. Then the bridge was managed by a committee of the County Board of Supervisors.

The old bridge was not strong enough to handle the growing traffic in Bay City's economic heyday, so a new bond for $75,000 was submitted to voters to pay for a new Third Street Bridge and a swing span at Twenty-Third Street.

More wrangling, court action and closing of the bridge for several months resulted in establishment of a bridge commission that had to be activated by the State Legislature, finally paving the way for construction of a new bridge.

It was opened after fifty horse teams had been turned back and drivers hollering the previous day.

So, we fast forward from horse-drawn teams of the 1880s to cars, trucks, and vans of today. But what have we learned to make life easier in a River City?

"The tourist traffic through Bay City into Northeastern Michigan has made conditions much worse on weekends," wrote Butterfield. "After the city received promises of aid from the national and state governments, bonds were voted for the erection of the Veteran's Memorial Bridge, a four-lane bridge with one-way approach streets."

The state no doubt should have built Veteran's Memorial Bridge to carry traffic through the city to Center Avenue and on to the Thumb. But it didn't, and local taxpayers had to pony up through a bond issue for that construction in the 1950s.

So, the bridges have been the focal point of our existence for nigh onto a century and a half. My own youthful existence was complicated by the need to cross the bridges almost daily.

The bridges, mainly Third Street but also Belinda and the railroad bridges, were part of growing up in Bay City in my youthful days some 70 years ago. We crossed them on our bikes, or afoot, several times a day it seems. I had fun riding the span on Third Street when a ship came through, ducking under the works on the nearby railroad bridge when a train came through, whizzing across Belinda on the wooden sidewalk on our bikes.

We boys had to pool our meager resources to get the $10 rental of the old Salvation Army gym on Saginaw Street, with a very low ceiling and the basket flat against the brick wall, for a whole morning of rough-house "basketball." But, the Salvation Army was on the East Side and we all were West Siders.

Midland Street had businesses on the approach to the Third Street Bridge: we recall especially Tobias Duz It that sold, well, just about everything. Beutel's Canning Company provided tomatoes and pickles for snacking and sport (don't tell Officer O'Hare who patrolled the West Side!)

What is now the Lumber Barons restaurant complex on Midland, was right across the street from Ginny & Laz--as I affectionately called the two bearded patriarchs Ginsburg & Lazarus. The friendly fur guys ($1 to $3 per rat, depending on size), had a big sheet metal fence that was handy for writing names, slogans, etc. I had to cross the bridge often to get to the Mill End to replace the muskrat traps that sold for 75 cents but were frequently stolen out of the swampy areas near the river.

Traffic from the Third Street Bridge passed St. Laurent Bros. candy and nuts and made a hard right at Rosenbury's Furniture, in whose front window several out of control vehicles ended up over the years. One pair of tipsy youthful drivers crashed into the store and promptly took a snooze in one of the sample beds, where of course the police promptly collared them.

We recall stories of how Bunk's Restaurant opened up in the 1930s mainly to serve the workers who were building the Lafayette Bridge that took a couple of years. Lafayette was on the route of US-23 that turned north on Euclid and headed north to Standish, West Branch and into God's Country -- Northern Michigan.

We could write a book about Bay City's bridges, but we won't. There isn't enough ink and paper to cover the topic.

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"The BUZZ" - Read Feedback From Readers!

justice at Bay justice Associates.com Says:       On January 01, 2018 at 09:16 PM
That was a very interesting story, Dave. I enjoyed it. Glad to see you?re contributing to this vitally needed source of news outside of Mlive.
barkerjack Says:       On January 02, 2018 at 03:03 AM
As a boy in the early 1950's, we spent many days waiting for a ship to come up, or down the river just so we could ride the bridge as it swung open. My step-mother, as a young woman, worked at St. Laurent, "Nut house", so when I return to my roots every few years, I still make sure I stop by and enjoy a bag of nuts, gum or candy, but sadly observe the empty space where the old Third Street Bridge had collapsed.
Agree? or Disagree?


Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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