B-32-0548
WisDOT Designation: Local - Rural
Current Owner: County of La Crosse
Year Built: 1939
County: La Crosse County
Crossing: Fleming Creek
Bridge Category: Riveted, Warren pony truss
Spans and Type: 1 span, pony truss
Overall Length and Width: 131 feet x 21 feet
National Register of Historic Places Status: Determined Eligible for listing in the National Register
Details
The bridge is a 131-foot-long, steel, riveted, Warren pony truss. It has a 21-foot-wide bituminous, cast-in-place, concrete deck. The 8-inch deck slab rests on six I-beam stringers supported by concrete abutments. The stringers are intersected by six floor beams riveted to the bottom chord. The top and bottom chords are rolled steel I-beams. Vertical, diagonal and lateral members and inclined end posts are riveted to the top and bottom chords with gusset plates.
In 1846, Lorenzo Lewis and his family reloca ted from Illinois to La Crosse County and settled on land in what became the town of Farmington. Lorenzo and his brothers constructed a sawmill on Fleming Creek in 1848 and a grist mill in 1850. Soon, Euro-Americans who had already settled in areas of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and southeastern Wisconsin began arriving to the Lewis settlement. The Town of Farmington was established on April 4, 1854, being named for its abundant farmland.
Based on historic maps, it appears that a road traveling north through the southeast quadrant of Section 18 was
constructed by 1857. By 1874, the road had been rerouted along the north/south center line of Section 18, stopping at the north branch of Fleming Creek. It was later extended further north through the southeast quadrant of Section 7.
In June 1939, the La Crosse County Highway Commission put out a request for bids to remove the structural steel of a lift bridge at the Genoa Dam and reconstruct a bridge along County M over Fleming Creek. The Genoa Dam, Lock and Dam No. 8, was constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers between 1933 and 1938 and was part of a series of Upper Mississippi Lock and Dam Projects.
The structural steel had originally comprised a Warren deck truss used to transport rock and other materials to the Tainter gate and roller sections of the dam. In late September of that year, the structural steel was repurposed to construct the Fleming Creek Bridge over County M.
At this time, the section of County M over Fleming Creek was rerouted from a northwest axis off of North Bend Road (now Pfaff Road) to travel directly north. During the early 1960s, County T was rerouted north of Fleming Creek, and Pfaff Road was truncated, making the intersection of County M and T the main junction in this area.