La Salle Street Bridge

The La Salle Street Bridge in South Bend, IN (1907). It was one of the first permanent crossings over the St. Joseph River in South Bend. Nehemiah B. Griffith operated a ferry here in 1831. St. Joseph County built a wooden covered bridge here in the late 1850s, but it was partially destroyed in an 1865 tornado. A replacement bridge collapsed into the river during a construction accident. These disasters led to the decision to build a solid iron truss bridge. It was reinforced with concrete to make a more graceful bridge.

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