USA > Iowa > Scott County > Davenport > History of Davenport and Scott County Iowa, Volume I > Part 30
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"Section 2. And be it further resolved, That in case the Rock Island & Pa- cific Railroad Company shall neglect or fail for sixty days after the passage of this resolution to make and guarantee the agreement specified in the act of ap- propriation aforesaid, approved March second, eighteen hundred and sixty- seven, then the secretary of war is hereby authorized and required to direct the removal of the existing bridge and to direct the construction of the bridge afore- said, and expend the money appropriated in said act; and the said Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company shall not have, acquire, or enjoy any right of way or privilege thereon, or the use of said bridge, until the agreement aforesaid shall be made and guaranteed according to the terms and conditions of said act of appropriation. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with these resolutions are hereby repealed.
"Section 3. And be it further resolved, That any bridge built under the provisions of this resolution shall be constructed so as to conform to the require- ments of section two of an act entitled 'An act to authorize the construction of certain bridges and establish them as post-roads,' approved July twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six."
Now, therefore, for the purpose of carrying into full effect the provisions of the several laws aforesaid, and for the considerations hereinafter set forth, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, by John F. Tracy, its president, who is duly authorized and empowered by the said company to bind the same hereunto, hereby covenants and agrees with the United States of
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America, hereinafter represented in this behalf by John M. Schofield, secretary of war, as follows:
First. The said company will, at its own expense, relocate its railroad track across the island of Rock island, upon such line as may be there designated by the secretary of war in pursuance of the act of June 27, 1866, above cited; and the secretary of war shall grant to said company, upon the line so designated, a per- manent location and right of way, of a width to be fixed by him, with such quan- tity of land to be occupied and held by the company for railroad purposes as may be necessary for the convenient construction of its track and the passage of its trains ; which grant shall not authorize the company to erect any structures upon the land so granted except the railroad tracks necessary for its business, nor to use said land for other purposes than the construction and keeping in repair of its necessary tracks and the passage of its trains; and the United States shall have the right to connect with the track of the company upon said island such side tracks as may be desired for the use of the United States, and at such point on said island as the ordnance department may select.
Second. Said company will, at its own cost, construct that part of the bridge to connect the island with the cities of Davenport and Rock Island, which is on the east side of the island ; to be of such character and to be built in such manner as shall be agreed upon between the said company and the secretary of war, the same to be completed as soon as that portion of said bridge on west side of the island is completed.
Third. The company shall, on the first day of January, A. D., 1872, pay to the government of the United States one-half the cost of the superstructure of that portion of said bridge which is to be built by the government of the United States over the main channel of said river: Provided, That the aggregate cost of the said bridge shall not exceed twelve hundred and ninety-six thousand, two . hundred and ninety-two dollars and eleven cents, the estimate of the same made by the commissioners appointed under the act approved June 27, 1866: And provided further, That the said bridge shall be completed in such manner as to afford a safe and proper crossing for the railroad trains of said company, and in such manner that the railroad of said company can be connected therewith by suitable and practical embankments, before the money stipulated to be paid herein by said company to the United States shall become due and payable: And pro- vided further, That the said bridge shall be built upon a plan to be agreed upon between the said company and the secretary of war ; or, in case of failure to make such agreement, the point in controversy shall be finally determined by one competent engineer, to be appointed by the secretary of war, and one to be appointed by the said company, these two to choose a third, in case of their disagreement, to act as umpire.
Fourth. The United States are to keep said bridge in repair, and the said company agrees to forever pay one-half of the cost thereof, from time to time, as the same shall accrue; but the sleepers and rails are to be put down upon the bridge and kept in repair at the expense of the railroad company, with- out cost to the United States, who will make all repairs to the wagon road without cost to the company.
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Fifth. The said company agrees to relocate the track across said island and to remove its present bridge across the main channel of said river west of said island within six months after the completion of the said new bridge ready for use.
In witness whereof these presents are signed by the secretary of war, on be- half of the United States, and by John F. Tracy, president of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, he being thereto lawfully authorized, and the seal of said company being hereunto affixed.
J. M. SCHOFIELD, JOHN F. TRACY,
President Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific. Railroad Company.
EBENEZER COOK, Secretary of C. R. I. & P. R. R. Co.
THREE GOVERNMENT BRIDGES.
The first bridge across the Mississippi at Davenport was built by the Missis- sippi River Bridge Company in 1853-55, and the moss-covered pier above mentioned is all that remains of it. This bridge first bore the weight of a train of cars, consisting of a locomotive and eight cars, April 1, 1856. On the 6th of May of that year, the first span east of the draw, 250 feet in length, was destroyed by fire, communicated by the steamer Effie Afton, which had collided and burned at one of the piers. With the opening of the river in March, 1868, heavy floating cakes of ice, jamming against it, the pier on the Iowa side was pushed into the river twenty-five feet from its foundation and in the month fol- lowing, a terrific windstorm settled the fate of the structure by lifting the draw span from its masonry, tilting it so that it hung supported only by the draw pier, with both ends up in midair. The second bridge, for the construction of which a compact was entered into by and between the United States government and the "Railroad Bridge Company," as herein described in detail, was completed in October, 1872, and opened for traffic in 1873. Its total length was 1,500 feet, consisting of five spans and a draw. The cost was practically $1,000,000 dollars.
As the country grew and prospered and traffic became more intense, the necessity for another and stronger bridge made itself apparent and the pres- ent structure is the result. The piers of the second bridge were utilized for the new one and on them, in the winter of 1894, was suspended a double-decked superstructure, with double railroad tracks above the double street car tracks and wagon road below. The trusses of this modern and one of the great bridges of the country are calculated to bear a total moving load of 11,360 pounds per lineal foot, of which 8,000 pounds are on the railway floor and 3,360 pounds on the roadway floor. The solid corrugated steel railway floor, together with the guard angles and rail plates, weigh about 940 pounds per lineal foot of the bridge. The draw span, which weighs approximately 2,500,000 pounds, is one of the heaviest in existence. The chain motion for the draw span is one of the salient departures from the usual methods. At the north end of the bridge
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the first span is 260 feet in length, the second, third and fourth are each 220 feet, the fifth is 260 feet and the draw is 368 feet. The approach span on the Dav- enport side is 200 feet and on the island end about one-half this length. Ralph Modjeska, son of the noted actress, Madam Modjeska, who recently passed away in California, and whose body was taken to her beloved Poland for sepulture, was chief engineer of the new bridge.
At the southwest limit of the island is a wagon bridge twenty-two feet in the clear, in the form of a viaduct, under which trains pass. There are foot walks outside the chords, each six feet in width. At its eastern end the south branch or Sylvan Water, is spanned by a bridge connecting the island with Moline. This bridge is 711 feet in length and has five spans of 142 feet in length each.
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIRST BRIDGE.
On January 17, 1854, the original wooden bridge which cost about $500,000 with the sylvan or "slough" bridge, and the line of rails connecting them, was started, and the draw was first swung open on April 9, 1856, over two years later. The wood work was constructed by the firm of Stone, Boomer & Boyn- ton, of Davenport, and the piers were built by John Warner of Rock Island. These piers were seven feet wide at the top, thirty-five feet long and thirty- eight feet high, resting upon solid rock. Each span was 250 feet in length. The draw span was 285 feet long and had a clear channel of 120 feet on each side of the draw pier. The length of the bridge was 1,581 feet. There were 1,080,- 000 feet of lumber, 400,000 pounds of wrought iron and 290,000 pounds of cast iron used in its construction. On April 11, 1856, a meeting was called to pro- vide ways and means for celebrating the opening of the bridge. A committee of twenty-five citizens was appointed to make all necessary arrangements for the event. On the 14th of April, following, another public meeting was held, at which a committee of five was appointed to solicit funds; Ebenezer Cook, Austin Corbin, Antoine LeClaire, J. Lambrite, and L. C. Dessaint were the members of that committee. The celebration was, however, deferred by re- quest of the railroad officials, as it appeared to them that the regular traffic would pay better than complimentary trains run to bring in distinguished strangers.
The Gazette of date .April 23, 1856. had this to say of the completed bridge : "The 21st day of April, 1856, can be set down as the beginning of a new era in the history of Davenport, as on that day the first locomotive crossed the great bridge which spans the Mississippi river at this point. The event occurred at dusk in the evening, very few persons being eye witnesses, the company, with their proverbial silence in regard to their operations, having kept everything quiet in relation to the matter. Slowly the locomotive Des Moines proceeded on the bridge. very cautiously crossed the draw, and then with accelerated speed rushed on to the Iowa shore where it was welcomed by the huzzas of those who had there assembled to witness the event.
"The last link is now forged in the chain that connects Iowa and the great west with the states of the Atlantic seaboard. The iron band that will span our
OLD BRIDGE IN EARLY DAYS As seen from Antoine Le Claire's residence on the left to Old Fort Armstrong on the right
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hemisphere has been welded at Davenport; one mighty barrier has been over- come ; the Missouri is yet to be crossed and then the locomotive will speed on- ward to the Pacific.
"Who can conjecture the effect of the completion of the road upon the city of Davenport! As it progresses business must continue to augment, and when at last a communication is effected with the distant and wealthy state of California, how vastly must that business increase. There is a future for Iowa that promises to make her the brightest star in the galaxy of states. Her extent of territory, fertility of soil, everything warrants this conclusion, and commensurate with her progress must be the advance of Davenport."
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE FIRST BRIDGE.
River men and the city of St. Louis were bitterly opposed to the erection of a bridge across the Mississippi river, and did all in their power to place ob- structions in the path of the railroad company, both by legal and illegal means, to prevent its construction. But in spite of the St. Louis chamber of commerce and steamboat companies, whose officials used every means that money and polit- ical influence could command, the work of constructing the bridge went on and continued until finished. In the Des Moines Register appeared a letter written by Hon. Robert Lowry, who was a citizen of Davenport from 1851 to 1883, and later became Indian agent and secretary of the land office at Huron, South Da- kota. In the communication, which follows below, he gives a lucid and very in- teresting story regarding the first bridge and its troubles :
"The attempt to bridge the father of waters united the steamboat interests from New Orleans to St. Paul and on the Ohio river to Pittsburg. In the places mentioned those interested claimed that under the provision of an old English law, renewed by legislation in this country, the navigable rivers, particularly one of such national importance as the Mississippi, were the king's highways. and could not be obstructed by bridges of any character. The courts were be- seeched for applications for attachments and injunctions and several attempts to burn the bridge were made. At last, amidst the most discouraging hindrances and obstructions, the great bridge was completed. Shortly thereafter, in May, 1856, the steamer Effie Afton, a large boat from the Ohio river, carrying many passengers and a heavy cargo of freight, was passing under the bridge when it swung against the south stone pier with such force as to break the boat in two. The wreck and bridge were set on fire. A number of persons were drowned and the boat completely lost. Immediately following the accident suit was brought against the railroad company with a view to having the bridge declared an ob- struction and securing its removal. The suit was brought before Justice John McLean, of the United States supreme court at Chicago. The railroad company employed some of the best lawyers in the country to defend this case, among them being Abraham Lincoln and N. B. Judd. The title of the case was 'Hurd et al., vs. Railroad Bridge Company.' When the case was called up a large num- ber of witnesses from Davenport and Rock Island went to Chicago and with them numerous parties interested in the suit. When I entered the courtroom there was a large number present. Justice McLean was in his chair and Mr. Lincoln
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was upon the floor, addressing the court. His towering figure, six feet, three and a half inches in height, impressed me. He was talking in a loud voice and twisting and bending his long thin form in all manner of shapes, emphasizing his words by gestures of his sapling-like arms. He said: 'The American people are a progressive people: our forefathers used to travel on horseback and in coaches, the latter in the west being superseded by Fink & Walker's hack, when each passenger was obliged to carry a fence rail to assist the driver in prying the hack from the mud. Afterward came the steamboat. If it please the court, I have had some experience in flatboating. I have taken a number of flatboats to New Orleans and returned by steamboat ; but our people were not satisfied to travel on the steamboat at the rate of eight or ten miles an hour, stopping at every little village or hamlet to take on fuel or freight. They soon wanted to go on railroads at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, and to facilitate travel, streams and rivers must be bridged; millions of dollars have been spent on navigable rivers yearly in removing obstacles from them and keeping their chan- nels clear. Railroads, like navigable rivers, are great national highways, and the rivers must yield so much of their vested rights as to permit bridges to be built across them to accommodate travel and commerce that naturally seek the railroads.'
A LINCOLN STORY.
"It will be remembered by the oldest citizens that the cities of Wheeling and Pittsburg claimed to be at the head of navigation of the Ohio river, and that there was much rivalry between them. In 1845 the people of Wheeling built a bridge over the Ohio river at that point and when completed the newspapers, in bold headlines, announced that that city was the head of navigation of the Ohio river. This was true. The bridge was so low, however, that the larger steamers could not pass under it. Pittsburg and the vicinity became greatly excited. Mass meetings were held, speeches were made and resolutions passed denouncing the Wheeling bridge and declaring it an obstruction to free navigation. Its removal was therefore demanded. Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, afterward Mr. Lincoln's secretary of war, Hon. Moses Hampton and Hon. Wilson McCandless were employed by the citizens of Pittsburg to bring suit against the Wheeling Bridge company in the federal courts. This fact apparently flashed upon Mr. Lincoln while earnestly addressing Judge McLean, and fixing his eyes squarely on him, said 'Will your Honor please pardon me if I relate a little incident which will have a bearing upon this case?' Being assured by the judge that he had a perfect right to talk, Mr. Lincoln continued: 'I once had some business in New Albany upon the Ohio river. After registering at the hotel I took a walk down to the river. A number of steamboats were lying at the wharf. Two of them, Telegraph No. I, and Hibernian No. 2, were very large boats, and had smoke stacks that seemingly touched the clouds. I could not comprehend why they were so tall. While looking at them an Irishman came along with his dray. He proved to be a true son of the Emerald isle. I asked him if he could tell me why those two boats had chimneys so much higher than the other boats. "Yez must be a stranger about here," says Pat. I told him that I was, and that I lived at Springfield, Illinois. "And faith, that's where they have the milk sickness." I told him that I
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could never locate the disease, but would like to know something about those tall chimneys. "Well, yez see, them's Pittsburg boats. Don't yez know that them Wheeling chaps has built a bridge over the Ohio river and then declared that town was the head of navigation of the Ohio river? The Pittsburg fellows swore that the bridge was an obstruction and must come down. And by the powers of Kilkenny and the bogs of Tyrone, they made good their oath by building chimneys so high that the boats couldn't go under the bridge, and there yez sees two of the Pittsburg boats.'"
Mr. Lincoln's imitation of the Irishman's rich brogue was so ludicrous and in- teresting that even Judge McLean threw himself back in his chair and joined the attorneys and spectators in a hearty laugh. Mr. Lincoln won his suit and the bridge was allowed to remain until superseded by the fine iron structure built by the government which now spans the Mississippi river at Davenport."
Mr. Lincoln, in preparing his arguments in this case, took advantage of and put into use the survey of the upper rapids of the Mississippi river made in 1837 by a young lieutenant of United States engineers, and it probably occurred to him that in 1832, when cholera was rampant at Fort Armstrong, on Rock island, it was often unwise and dangerous for boats to land there and that a steamboat, carrying Black Hawk, the noted Sac warrior, as a prisoner, was in charge of a lieutenant of the United States army on a steamboat anchored in the stream a few hundred feet above the site of the bridge.
Looking back over the years that have long since passed away, an unusual interest is centered in the personnel of some of those whose memories are par- ticularly connected with the history of the bridge and Rock island, for during the war which convulsed the nation three and a half years after this notable trial the attorney who defended the bridge company was president of the United States ; the lieutenant who made the survey, Robert E. Lee, was commander in chief of the army of the Confederacy, while the lieutenant who brought Black Hawk to Prairie du Chien, Jefferson Davis, was president of the so-called confederate states of America.
PLOT TO BURN THE BRIDGE.
A dispatch from Chicago, of date August 8, 1860, was sent to and published in the Democrat, stating that Josiah Bissell, a young man, smooth-spoken, plau- sible, an architect, engineer and bridge builder, and a prime mover in the raid against the great bridge, was arrested in that city by Officer Dennis, of Pinker- ton's police force, and that Walter E. Chadwick had been arrested at Rock Island by Officer Webster upon warrants charging them with conspiracy to burn the railroad bridge across the Mississippi river at Rock Island. The dispatch gave the further information that on the morning of August 8th, indictments had been found against the accused by the grand jury of the recorder's court, then in ses- sion, and that a large quantity of inflammable material in bottles had been seized by the officers at the time of the arrest of Bissell; that Bissell was the agent of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and Chadwick an attorney in cases pending against the Rock Island Railroad company. In its mention of the matter the Chicago Press and Tribune had the following to say, after describing the parties under arrest :
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"In April last, Mr. Bissell came to this city and stopped at the Richmond house. He had a business interview with Cyrus P. Bradley, a well-known de- tective of this city, and after finishing other important matters, came out plumply with the proposition to pay him $5,000 if he would cause the bridge to be burned. He paid Mr. Bradley a compliment, saying that if he, Mr. Bradley, undertook it, it would be done. Bissell at the time lamented the previous failure last fall and that it must be done sure this time. He said the law-suits would never move the bridge, 'but let it once be burned and we'll get out an injunction against re- building it. Do you see?' Captain Bradley did 'see,' and took the bait. Not long thereafter Superintendent Tracy, of the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad com- pany, and Hon. B. C. Cook, of Ottawa, attorney for the company, were acquainted with the facts and from that time to day before yesterday Messrs. Bissell and Chadwick, with C. P. Bradley, silent partner of this interesting bridge destroying firm, enjoyed plain sailing straight into the lion's jaws. They have had con- versations in this city in a card room carefully prepared with a skillful shorthand reporter, taking evidence 'behind the arras,' and at times citizens well chosen for standing and probity have been placed equally well to hear how it was to be done-the burning of the bridge.
"On Tuesday, by previous agreement, a package of combustibles came by express to this city from St. Louis. It contained fifty champagne bottles filled with a highly combustible treacle-like fluid, known as Greek fire. This was to be kept as Bradley's stock in trade, among other things. All seemed to be ready for the harvest. Officer Dennis took Mr. Bissell into custody at the Richmond house that evening and Special Deputy Tim Webster and Mr. J. R. Reed, bridge master of the railroad company at Rock Island, served the papers almost simul- taneously on Chadwick in that city. This latter arrest was neatly done. Mr. Chadwick was invited to the depot to look at some papers in Webster's posses- sion. Then it turned out that the paper was accidentally in Mr. Webster's valise in the cars and just as the two went into the car of the up-bound night train, to see the paper, Chadwick did see and too late, that it was a warrant for his arrest and he a prisoner and the train already under headway for Chicago. Chadwick and Bissell joined company here under arrest yesterday. These men were tried for the crime alleged against them and on December 15, 1860, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty against Bissell. Chadwick was never brought to trial."
Timothy Webster, who made the arrest of Chadwick in Rock Island, came to Davenport immediately after the attempt to burn the Rock Island bridge in the summer of 1858, and remained here for several years. He was not known, however, as Timothy Webster, but as J. R. Reed, and from the logic of events it became apparent that his object in taking up his residence in Davenport was to employ his time as a member of the Pinkerton detective agency in the interest of the Rock Island Railroad company in ferreting out the instigators of the plot to burn the bridge. Mr. Reed was well known in this city during his resi- dence here and in 1860 was elected alderman from the fifth ward, but for reasons best known to himself at the time he declined to qualify for the office. He was a Jacksonian democrat, a great admirer of Stephen A. Douglas and took an active part in the presidential campaign of 1860. In this relation it might be well
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