Meridian Bridge

As it exists now in 1999 with plans to be replaced, the Meridian Bridge still stands as one of the great events in South Dakota history and Yankton's most defining achievement of the century.

"I think Yankton would be a community we wouldn't recognize if the bridge hadn't been built when it was," Kathy Grow said. Grow, along with Lois Varvel, is working on a book about the Meridian Bridge. The book is scheduled to be released in December -- almost exactly 75 years after the bridge was finished.

Ideas for creating a bridge from Yankton to Nebraska began in the late 1800s. With the dawn of the automobile, better roads were soon being built in the early 20th Century. However, no easy method of crossing the Missouri had yet been found. By 1911 the idea for the Meridian Highway (now U.S. Highway 81) was born, as government officials planned to make a 3,100-mile international route from Mexico City to Winnipeg, Canada.

The Meridian Bridge is said to have been born June 1, 1919, when several prominent Yankton businessmen gathered at the L.B. French home at 609 Douglas Avenue for a meeting. There it was decided that the bridge could be built through primarily local capital, using Liberty Bonds which had been purchased during World War I. On July 5, 1919, a corporation charter was granted to the Meridian Highway Bridge Company of Yankton, with Deloss Butler Gurney as president.

Gurney, whose seed and nursery operation was by then growing into a Yankton powerhouse, seized the lead role in the project for the next five years. Largely because of Gurney's determination and leadership in seeking pledges, an initial commitment of $155,500 was reached for the bridge.

On Feb. 21, 1921, construction officially began, and less than two months later some 3,000 people witnessed South Dakota Gov. W.H. McMaster pour the first bucket of cement into Pier No. 1.

The bridge's superstructure was complete by the summer of 1924, using more than 750,000 rivets. The 250-foot lift span, using only a 20-horsepower motor, was tested on July 30 when Yankton's last ferryboat, the B.A. Douglass, passed underneath.

The Meridian Highway Bridge -- 1,668 feet long and standing on eight piers -- was officially dedicated on Oct. 11, 1924, five days after Mrs. D.B. Gurney drove the first automobile across the paved upper deck and paid the bridge's first 50-cent toll required of a car and driver. Hundreds of people also walked across the bridge, paying the toll of 10 cents per person.

It was an enormous event for Yankton, which would for many years hold the nickname of "Bridge City." In the years to follow, the city of Yankton held strongly to its own identity and felt a tremendous sense of pride, Grow said.

"It was built by the town of Yankton without any outside government help. It was a real achievement, and the bridge makes Yankton what it is," she said.

In 1946 a new state law made it possible for the City of Yankton to become the owner of the bridge. Thus, the local government could pay off the revenue bonds from the tolls derived for the bridge's use. The tolls on the bridge would continue until 1953, at which time Yankton was just beginning its other major river project of the century -- Gavins Point Dam.

In a fitting gesture, at 12:01 a.m. Dec. 1, 1953, the bridge became officially debt-free after Mrs. D.B. Gurney again drove across the bridge and paid the final 50-cent toll, 29 years after she had paid the first.

By the late 1990s, talks began to replace the beloved but deteriorating bridge. With high maintenance costs projected for maintaining the bridge, the structure's destruction seemed all but inevitable, much to the dismay of local preservationists.

"It would be a tremendous shame to lose the bridge. It is the signature landmark of Yankton," Grow said.