Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Eagle Point Bridge

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Crosses
  
Mississippi River

Design
  
Truss bridge

Opened
  
1902

Bridge type
  
Truss bridge

Maintained by
  
State of Iowa

Closed
  
1983

Location
  
Dubuque

Body of water
  
Mississippi River

Eagle Point Bridge Eagle Point Bridge Dubuque IA

Carries
  
2 lanes of US 61 / US 151

Locale
  
Dubuque, Iowa and Grant County, Wisconsin

Similar
  
Dubuque–Wisconsin Bridge, Sabula Rail Bridge, Gateway Bridge, Black Hawk Bridge, Lock and Dam No 11

The Eagle Point Bridge was a very narrow two lane automobile bridge that connected urban Dubuque, Iowa and rural Grant County, Wisconsin. It was part of the US 61/US 151 route, and was a toll bridge. After the new Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge was built in 1983, the Eagle Point Bridge was torn down. At the end, the toll was ten cents, both ways, collected on the Iowa side.

Eagle Point Bridge Eagle Point Bridge Dubuque IA

The bridge was located about 900 feet south of Lock and Dam No. 11, at the northern edge of Rhomberg Avenue in Dubuque, and connected to Eagle Point Road on the opposite side of the river. It was about one mile (2 km) north of the present bridge. In 1968, the highway designation was removed from the bridge and a four-ton load limit was put in place. The bridge was still structurally sound after the new bridge was built, leading some to ask the bridge be kept open as a pedestrian or special use bridge, but the state of Iowa still tore the bridge down.

Eagle Point Bridge bridgehuntercomphotos1189118990Mjpg

Several years after the demolition of the bridge, a restaurant known as the Tollbridge Inn was constructed at what was the Iowa end of the bridge. The restaurant operated for a number of years, until it was torn down to make way for future development.

Eagle Point Bridge Bridgehuntercom Eagle Point Bridge

The bridge was extensively documented in 1982 for the Library of Congress Historic American Engineering Record. The survey consists of 81 black-and-white photos and 45 data pages detailing construction and history of the bridge.

References

Eagle Point Bridge Wikipedia