Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • FA L L 2 0 1 7 60 THE SNOWDEN BRIDGE Montana is home to the longest vertical lift bridge in the United States. e Snowden Bridge crosses the Missouri River 15 miles southeast of Bainville, just off Secondary 327 near the Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site. Built in 1913 by the Great Northern Railway, it is, perhaps, the most photographed bridge in the state. e 296-foot lift span was used infrequently, but mostly during the construction of Fort Peck Dam in the 1930s. Using concrete counterweights, the lift operator raised the span for barges destined for the dam site from a small shed on top of the bridge. For a time, the Snowden Bridge served as the state's only toll bridge. THE FALLON BRIDGE is spectacular bridge rises like a silver cloud from the northern Great Plains of southeastern Montana. e bridge crosses the Yellowstone River on the frontage road a mile north of Fallon 29 miles southwest of Glendive. e bridge was one of the few highway projects built during World War II. An ice jam destroyed the original bridge in 1943. e highway commission hired William Roscoe, Montana's ace bridge- builder at the time, to build a new structure as quickly as possible. Manpower shortages, especially in steelworkers, forced him to look elsewhere for qualified workers. He found it on the Crow Reservation, which supplied most of the labor for the structure. When completed in November 1944, the Fallon Bridge was the most massive bridge in southeastern Montana. Historic bridges are an integral part of the Montana landscape. Functional and visually appealing with their clean lines and often striking appearance. Meant by their designers to be taken for granted, they represent an important part of Montana's transporta- tion and social history. In many cases old bridges stand next to new ones, providing a remarkable example of how much Montana has changed and evolved over the past 150 years. THE AUTOMOBILE WAS THE PRIMARY REASON FOR THE LEGISLATURE'S CREATION OF THE MONTANA STATE HIGHWAY COMMISSION IN 1913, WHICH ALSO MANDATED THE FORMATION OF A BRIDGE DEPARTMENT TWO YEARS LATER. Fallon Bridge Snowden Bridge Fairview & Snowdown RR lift bridges www.distinctlymontana.com/bridges174 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL

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