The Last Plank Goes Down on East Main Street's New Steel Bridge
After months of "vexatious delays," Walla Walla's street commissioner can finally point to a finished span — and Sixth Street is next on the list.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
After all kinds of vexatious delays and inconveniences, Street Commissioner Crampton could proudly point to the fact today that the new East Main street bridge was all but completed. The force of men which has been at work on the Sixth street bridge was set to work this morning, and the last of the planking was down and spiked by noon. About all that is necessary to complete the work is filling in the approaches with gravel and removing the debris that has accumulated.
The new bridge stands the city about $5,000. The biggest item of expense in the repair was the immense steel girders and cross beams shipped from eastern mills at a cost of over $3,000, the freight alone being something like $1,000. The next improvement scheduled in that vicinity is the laying of cement walks along the Main street side of the Die Brucke. The work will be commenced with the first favorable weather.
The completion of the Sixth street bridge, which has been closed to travel for several weeks, will be taken up at once by Commissioner Crampton. With favorable weather it is thought the bridge can be reopened within a couple of weeks. The necessary piling has all been driven.
“About all that is necessary to complete the work is filling in the approaches with gravel and removing the debris that has accumulated.”
Then, as now, a city bridge was a budget argument as much as an engineering one — $3,000 of eastern steel and $1,000 in freight against a $5,000 total. Walla Walla still wrestles with how to pay for the crossings that hold its neighborhoods together. Note the line about cement walks along "the Die Brucke": even the town's streets bore German names in 1903.
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