The Great Northern railroad company built the Snowden lift bridge in 1913; it spans the Missouri River between Roosevelt and Richland Counties in Montana. Its designer, John Alexander Low Waddell, based the Snowden bridges design on the South Halsted Street Bridge in Chicago. In its completion, the Snowden Bridge was the longest (1,159 feet) vertical-lift bridge in the world. Its cost then was $465,367, which is equivalent to $10,000,000 today.
The War Department wanted a bridge that would allow large steamboats to venture up the Missouri during the month that the water was high enough to allow such ships through that part of the river. A kerosene engine could raise the platform 43 feet in about thirty minutes. And in theory, a hand turned capstan might also be used to lift the bridge. The span was last raised in 1935 and the lift machinery was removed in 1943.
In 1925 a plank road was built for one-way vehicular and foot traffic, while the bridge was still being used by the Great Northern Railroad. Although this sounds …show more content…
A lift bridge offers several more benefits over other movable bridges such as a swing span or bascule. They cost less to build and the counterweights in a vertical lift are only required to be equal to the weight of the deck, whereas other bridges require counterweights that weigh almost twice as much as the bridge span, and as a result, heavier materials can be used in the deck. The bridge also has a carrying capacity of 1,996 tons, making it perfect for constant railroad usage.
An interesting story that goes along with the Snowden Bridge is about a murder and a hanging that took place in the time of construction. Alice Sweetman, the wife of Luke Sweetman, lived in Mondak at the time. The Sweetmans ranch is now the current home of Miles and Cindy Panasuk. This story is based off of an interview of Alice