Historic Bridges
of the United States

Lake Park Footbridge

Milwaukee County, Wisconsin

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Photos 

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Footbridge Circa 1908

The Lake Park Footbridge as seen circa 1908, looking west at the north end of the bridge. Note the urn balustrades, long gone from the railings, and the hats the people are wearing. The photo was taken by Sumner W. Matteson.

Photo from the collection of the Milwaukee Public Museum and used with permission.

Photo taken by Summer W. Matteson, circa 1908

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The same view - sort of

It is not practical to duplicate the position of Mr. Matteson's camera because in 100 years, trees and underbrush have pretty much taken over. This is the opposite side, looking southeast at north end of the bridge. Note that the urn balustrades have been replaced with poured concrete.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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This is about as close as we can get to duplicating the 1908 photograph.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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Here Mr. Matteson stood on the north edge of the ravine and aimed southeast. You can just make out the pavillion, behind the tree, that today houses an upscale restaurant. There were four globe light standards at the portals of the bridge that, like the urn balustrades, are long gone.

The photo is from the collection of the Milwaukee Public Museum and used with permission.<.EM>

Photo taken by Sumner W. Matteson circa 1908

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The same view today. The wood railing is for a stone stairway that leads to a walkway in the ravine that was added decades ago.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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The west face

Ravine Drive continues down to Lincoln Memorial Drive, Lake Park East and the shore of Lake Michigan.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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The south portal. The flared areas are at the top of the piers. The blue box on the right side is a police call box. Before the days when every home had a telephone, when walking beat cops didn't have portable two-way radios or cell phones, these boxes were a common sight for officers to use to check in with headquarters. Today, they are almost all gone with a few renegades, like this one, still extant. They also had a blue light on the top to make it easy to find them at night.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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Looking west, over the railing at Ravine Drive. The photo does not really indicate just how far down the road surface really is.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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The arch

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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The Grand Staircase

An extension of the footbridge was this Grand Staircase that allowed passage down the bluff. A promonade and athletic field, with stadium seating, was built below the bluff. The photo was taken by Sumner W. Matteson, from the collection of the Milwaukee Public Museum and used with permission.

Photo taken by Summer W. Matteson circa 1908

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The same view today. The promonade and athletic field, that were here, are long gone. The trees and undergrowth long ago obscured the view of the bridge.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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The grand staircase today. The urn balustrades, extant at the top of the staircase, were removed from the lower staircase and the footbridge. It is speculated that the urns were removed from here, and from the footbridge, at the time the promonade was removed but that has not been verified.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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Urn details, the same that were part of the footbridge, and the view of Lake Michigan from the top of the grand staircase. The view was the same from the footbridge before the trees grew tall enough to block the view.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

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Historical Plaque

The signifcance of Frederick Law Olmsted's landscape design was recognized in 1973 wirh this plaque. The entire park, including the bridges and structures, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.

Photo taken by J.R. Manning in June 2008

Map 

Vicinity Map

Vicinity map

Map links:

The Significance of Lake Park and the Lake Park Bridges 

Written by J.R. Manning

The west shore of Lake Michigan features a tall bluff, varying in height but as high as 70 meters, that overlooks the lake. In the mid 1800's, the civic leaders of Milwaukee recognized the importance of preserving public space in the form of parks and began to buy up land throughout the area. One of the spots was the area that is now known as Lake Park. The significance of this site is nothing new, burial mounds of Native Americans were found here.

In 1854, the U.S. Lighthouse service built the North Point Lighthouse on a two acre plat that divided the planned park area. The lighthouse was moved back 100 feet because of bluff erosion, a problem that continues to this day. The city and the federal government came to an agreement in 1893 that allowed the park to be developed as planned, and the lighthouse continued in operation until is was decommissioned in 1994. The lighthouse is now a part of the park and is being restored.

The Milwaukee Park Commission contracted with Frederick Law Olmsted, the noted landscape architect, to design Lake Park. (Ohlmstead is remembered for designing New York's Central Park, the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the grounds of the Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate.)

The Lion Bridges, that span the ravines that frame the lighthouse, were completed in 1897. The footbridge was built in 1906 and the Grand Staircase in 1908.

You can learn more about this wonderful park and the structures of it at the website of the Lake Park Friends.

Facts 

Overview
Concrete arch bridge over Ravine Road on Lake Park in Milwaukee
Location
Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin
Status
Open to traffic
History
Built 1906
Builders
- F.E. Turneaure
- Ferry and Class
- Newton Engineering Co.
Design
This structure is a pierced-spandrel, reinforced-concrete, rib-arch bridge. There are two reinforced-concrete ribs, 12 inehs wide and 54 inches deep, placed 12 feet apart. They are reinforced with Kahn-patent trussed bars. Each rib supports a spandrel wall pierced wtih large openings. The overall effect is designed to reduce structure weight. This is among the earliest American rib-arch bridges and possibly the first rib-arch bridge to use the Kahn trussed-bar system of reinforcement. Detailing is neoclassical.
Historic Highway Bridges in Wisconsin, Volume 1, Wisconsin DOT 1986.
Dimensions
Length of largest span: 118 ft.
Total length: 216.5 ft.
Deck width: 10 ft.
Recognition
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places
Approximate latitude, longitude
+43.06900, -87.86855   (decimal degrees)
43°04'08" N, 87°52'07" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/429285/4768843 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Milwaukee OE E
Inventory numbers
NRHP 93000339 (National Register of Historic Places reference number)
BH 34853 (Bridgehunter.com ID)
Inspection
Average daily traffic (as of 2005)
1,000

Categories 

Arch (7,665)
Built 1906 (164)
Built during 1900s (2,495)
Deck arch (6,749)
F.E. Turneaure (1)
Ferry and Class (1)
Footbridge (23)
Milwaukee County, Wisconsin (77)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (47)
NR-listed (1,538)
Newton Engineering Co. (1)
Open to pedestrians (486)
Owned by county (14,324)
Span length 100-125 feet (2,303)
Total length 175-250 feet (1,855)
Wisconsin (464)

Update Log 

Sources 

Comments 

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