VC Bridge Tour Running for 2020 Award
Valley City is known for a great many things—its friendly community, thriving downtown district, breathtaking landscapes and recreational opportunities, to name a few. But there’s only one feature that has woven itself into the town’s nickname: bridges.
Valley City has an array of historic bridges crossing the winding Sheyenne River, and eight of them are featured on the Historic Bridges Tour. No two are the same, and each one has a unique story tied deeply to Valley City’s existence as a modern city that has taken great care to preserve its history.
This year, the Historic Bridges Tour in Valley City is in the running for a 2020 Bridgehunter Award in the category of “Best Bridge Tour.” The Bridgehunter Awards have been held for 9 years by the Bridgehunter’s Chronicles, a group dedicated to promoting, photographing and writing about historic bridges in the US and Europe. One of the group’s main motivations is to encourage tourists to visit historic bridges, especially those that are in danger of being replaced or removed. On the website, the author writes about such bridges to ensure people are aware of their existence and are motivated to take action to save them. It’s a highly-trafficked site with a podcast, Facebook page, Twitter page, and webpage. Now, they’re encouraging people to vote for their favorites in the “Best Photo,” “Tour Guide,” “Mystery Bridge” and “Lifetime Achievement” categories. Voting ends on January 22nd, at 11:59 p.m. and winners will be announced on the 23rd. Here’s how to vote for Valley City’s Bridge Tour in the 2020 Bridgehunter’s Awards: visit bridgehunterschronicles.wordpress. com /2020/12/06/2020- bridge hunter awards-part-2-tour-guide/ (we’ll also share the link on our website and Facebook page) and scroll down to
the “Tour Guide USA” box. You’ll see Valley City, North Dakota listed among the names— just select the box and click “vote” on the bottom left. Then you can see the current results for each of the locations. As of Monday, January 18th, Valley City is in 3rd place with 15 votes (behind Frankfort, Kentucky with 162 votes and Jefferson Proving Grounds, Indiana with 20 votes).
The Chronicles’ motto is “Bridging our past with the future by preserving our heritage in the present,” one that fits perfectly with Valley city’s dedication to preserving and promoting what historic features have made an impact.
Valley City’s Bridges
It is because of one bridge in particular that Valley City came into existence. In North Dakota, as with much of the west, the Northern Pacific railroad was pivotal in settling the area. The first NP bridge to cross the Sheyenne was constructed in 1872 near the present-day Rainbow Bridge. A town grew up around the crossing, starting with just a few settlers and then growing into a lively center of commerce.
A Teachers College popped up in 1890 at the space Valley City State University’s campus occupies today. Another historical bridge connecting us to that time is the VCSU Footbridge (Est. 1901). The white suspension bridge of today replaced the first wooden bridge built at the spot in 1892. When it was first built, the footbridge made it possible for students attending Valley City State Normal School to easily access both their campus and their city, and the newer version continues to offer VCSU students a gateway to Valley City’s downtown.
The Mill Dam Bridge that’s part of the Bridges Tour has an important place in Valley City history, too. The first flour mill was built in the late 1870s and was a huge business-booster for the up and coming town. A bridge near the mill was completed in 1898, helping to boost ease of transportation and workforce operations. Between 1936 and 1937, an updated, concrete bridge replaced it. Today’s modern concrete bridge was built in 1991.
Perhaps the most iconic of all bridges in Valley City is the High Line, a towering steel viaduct that suspends locomotives more than one hundred feet above the river valley.
The High Line Bridge was built between 1907 and 1908 to avoid the steep grades on either side of the valley, which trains crossing the original “Low Line” faced. The High Line saved time and money as locomotives steamed effortlessly over the steep hills of the valley, and the structure immediately became a vital artery to the west. In fact, it was so important to the nation’s coast-tocoast commerce that it was heavily guarded during times of war to prevent sabotage.
The American Society of Civil Engineers dedicated the bridge as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 2005, noting that the towering structure continues to provide an uninterrupted flow of the nation’s commerce.
More than 1.2 million cubic yards of earth were moved to construct the viaduct, and workers overcame a great many obstacles to complete this modern marvel.
“Despite experiencing at least one tornado, having to deal with quicksand and clay in the riverbed, and a scarcity of good gravel for making concrete,” ASCE writes, “the bridge was finally ready for its official opening on May 12, 1908.”
The High Line remains one of the longest and highest single-track railroad bridges in the nation.
Other bridges included in the Historic Bridges Tour around Valley City are the City Park Footbridge, West City Park Bridge, Hospital Bridge and Maryvale Bridge. Show your pride in our town’s bridges by voting in the 2020 Bridgehunter Awards’ Bridge Tours category.