October 1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

H►t Fane 146064 OW AXt%hW Ha 1621-0011 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet E 10 East Bank Multiple Property Listing Section number Page St. Joseph .County, Indiana havoc. In February of 1881, after a period of torrential rains, an immense gorge of ice and water formed about a mile above the city. On the afternoon of the 10th, it came surging downstream toward the Jefferson Street Bridge, where it pounded against the bridge supports until one end dropped into the foaming current, flipping the entire structure. The force then hurled the debris over the dam, mixing -it with the frozen ice and whirling it like a massive sledge against the ice breakers of the iron bridge at Colfax Avenue. The frenzied conglomeration snapped them like pipestems. The stone pier saved the entire bridge from collapse, but the tortuous mass continued on its devastating path, pummelling toward the Leeper Bridge at Michigan Street. The fragile wooden span bravely stood its ground --but only for a short time. 25 With such disasters in mind, St. Joseph County Commissioners enthusiastically embraced new bridge innovations when they became available after the turn of the century. One such system, the Melan arch construction which employed steel ribs buried in cast concrete, • promised a nearly indestructible "stone" arch of beauty and grace. After an initial experiment on Cedar Street in Mishawaka proved successful, the commissioners ordered three more to be built in the county. Two of these would span the St. Joseph River in South Bend. 26 Both of them, the Jefferson and LaSalle Street Bridges remain today -- striking examples of the pride and affluence which the industrial era brought to the East Bank at the dawn of the new century. The railroad came to South Bend in 1851, with the first through train in October of that year. The line, after consolidation, was known as the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, but it didn't traverse the East Bank area. Later, in 1870, the Michigan Central line came down with a branch line which terminated at the Singer Manufacturing Company facility on East Madison, with railroad yards across Niles Street (then called Emrick) to the east. Finally, a conglomerate of various companies conspired to bring the Grand Trunk Railroad through South Bend. At first it operated under the name'of the Chicago & Lake Huron company, but by 1879 it was taken over by the Grand Trunk of Canada. 27 This east/west line bisected the East Bank in the south and a concrete and steel railroad bridge was erected in 1929 across the St. 25 South Bend Tribune, February 10, 1881, reprinted in Phillip H. Ault, South Bend Remembers, Decatur, IL: Spectator Books, 1977. 26 Howard, pp. 232-233. • 27 Ibid.