Government Bridge

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Government Bridge
3/4 overall view from the Clock Tower Building (Building 205); looking NNW toward Davenport, Iowa. (Ceronie)
Carries	2 lanes of roadway 1 rail line
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Davenport, Iowa and Rock Island, Illinois
Design	Steel truss bridge
AADT	25,500
Opening date	1896
Coordinates	41°31′09″N, 90°34′01″W

The Government Bridge, or Arsenal Bridge, spans the Mississippi River connecting Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa. It is located near upper Mississippi mile 483 at 41°31′09″N, 90°34′01″W. It is adjacent to Mississippi River Lock and Dam number 15.

Government Bridge replaced two bridges on or near its current location.

The first bridge, constructed in the early 1850's and located around 1500 feet upstream of the present, was the first bridge to ever span the Mississippi River and played prominent roles in the ramp up to the American Civil War and construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.

The bridge was to connect the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad with the newly created Mississippi and Missouri Railroad proposed by Thomas C. Durant to be the first railroad in Iowa and was to link Davenport, Iowa and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Companies operating steam ships on the Mississippi opposed the bridge fearing that it would pose a navigation hazard and that it would alter their monopoly on trade.

Since the bridge crossed an island that was formerly the home of Fort Armstrong, the Department of War had a say in the construction (even though Fort Armstrong had closed in 1845). Future Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who was Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce initially approved the bridge thinking that the first transcontinental railroad was going to go through the South to Los Angeles, California. However, as resistance to this plan began surface Davis opposed the bridge fearing that it would result in the transcontinental railroad going through the north. Davis ordered the construction halted but was ignored.

Davis had no luck in getting the courts to agree with him and the bridge was built opening on April 22, 1856^[1].

On May 6, 1856, the steamer Effie Afton hit a span on the bridge completely destroying the steamer and one of the spans. Steamboat companies sued to have the bridge dismantled. The M&M and the Rock Island Line hired Abraham Lincoln to defend the bridge. The case was to work its way to the Supreme Court and be decided in the bridge's favor in 1862 during the Civil War. In the meantime, the M&M and Rock Island merged to become the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.^[2] Durant was to take his earnings from the M&M merger to form a new company called the Union Pacific. Lincoln in doing research as private attorney was to visit M&M facilities and was to meet with various M&M officials in Council Bluffs. When the Pacific Railroad Act gave Lincoln the power to decide the eastern terminus of transcontinental he was to pick a location that was most favorable to his former clients.

The first bridge did not have a movable span and was determined to be a hazard to navigation and after it was damaged by ice in 1868 it was replaced by a second bridge by 1872. All that remains of the first bridge are two piers on opposite sides of the river. The second bridge had a draw-span, but was determined to be too small and was replaced by the current swing-span bridge which was placed on the same piers as the second bridge.