The Historic Muscoda Mile
Bridges
The Lower Wisconsin River provided steamboat travel both east and west, passing by the settlement area in what was called “English Prairie”. Muscoda was developing as a village in the location of ‘Lower Town’ along the river when transportation across the Wisconsin River to the north became important, providing access to Richland County and specifically the village of Orion. A petition for a ferry to be established with close to 300 signatures was presented by Thomas Matthews, dated 1863. The Matthews Ferry was not the only ferry in the area, as just up the river the Laws Ferry was operating at Riverview.
A Civil War General, Jonathon B. Moore resided in the area, having also served as Grant County sheriff and as a member of the state legislature. He agreed to build a bridge that would be operated by toll. The first bridge, completed in 1868, was an important connection across the Wisconsin River. Of the three bridges that would cross the river at Muscoda, remnants of the stone piers from this first toll bridge still exist today, just to the east, upriver from the current bridge.
In 1888 Gen. Moore would sell the toll bridge to John Postel and John Schwingle.
Public demand continued to grow over the next thirty years for a FREE Bridge to be built. In 1929 a new highway bridge with a ‘bascule’ would be built, having a drawbridge on the southern extent where the main channel of the Wisconsin River flowed, to be utilized by riverboats traveling up and down the river. Although records will show it was not used more than twice, specifically for demonstration that it could operate; still, it provided a landmark at the ‘Lower Town’ shore line of Muscoda.
Noted complications developed with this second bridge, primarily connected to the initial construction, in that the new FREE bridge was too narrow. It had been built with the wall supports to the inside, and following a series of accidents, an attempt to make it less dangerous by putting in guard rails only made the bridge even narrower.
Finally in 1989 the current bridge, wide and luxurious in appearance, was built and celebrated.
