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Photo, Print, Drawing Fred Robinson Bridge, Spanning Missouri River at milepost 88.0 on U.S. Highway 191, Lewistown, Fergus County, MT Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument

[ Data Pages from Survey HAER MT-196  ]

More Resources

[ Photo Captions from Survey HAER MT-196  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Fred Robinson Bridge, Spanning Missouri River at milepost 88.0 on U.S. Highway 191, Lewistown, Fergus County, MT

Other Title

  • Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument

Names

  • Historic American Engineering Record, creator
  • Stratton, Howard E.
  • N. A. Nelson Construction Company
  • American Bridge Company
  • Paper, Calmenson & Company
  • Montana State Highway Commission
  • Caird Engineering
  • Ideal Cement Company
  • Robinson, Fred
  • Nelson, Nels Albert
  • Highway 19-Missouri River Bridge Association (MRBA)
  • Byerly, Ken
  • Rook, Earl
  • Montana Department of Transportation (MDT), sponsor
  • Axline, Jon, historian
  • Park, Robert C., photographer
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1968

Headings

  • -  transportation
  • -  toll bridges
  • -  vehicular bridges
  • -  steel girder bridges
  • -  Montana--Fergus County--Lewistown

Latitude / Longitude

  • 47.6308687668412,-108.68482141139866

Notes

  • -  Significance: The Fred Robinson Bridge is significant as the culmination of long-time efforts by residents of central Montana and the Montana Highway Department to construct a bridge across the Missouri River in a remote and isolated part of the state. Historically, the upper Missouri River was a barrier to north-south travel in Montana. The endeavor to construct the bridge across the Missouri between Malta and Lewistown began in the early 1920s and culminated in the construction of this steel girder bridge in the 1950s. The bridge represents the finale of the Highway Department's multi-decade debate about the design of a structure on the upper Missouri. At the time of its completion, it was the only bridge crossing of the river between Fort Benton and Poplar, a distance of 250 river miles. The bridge's completion allowed the economic development of an area that had hitherto been remote and inaccessible to anyone but a few farmers and ranchers. The structure is named for a state senator that aggressively fought for the construction of the structure. It was the last big bridge project completed by the highway department prior to the beginning of the Interstate Highway Program in Montana in 1959. The construction of the bridge and dedication celebration in August 1959 is well documented in the historic record, making the Fred Robinson Bridge one of the best documented bridges in Montana. The bridge is a monumental example of the type of steel girder bridges designed and built by the Montana Highway Department in the 1950s. Except for the steel guardrails (now Jersey rails), the bridge retains all the structural components standard to steel girder bridges built from 1945 until the early 1960s. Because of the width of the crossing at the Missouri River at this point and the rugged and unstable site conditions, the scale and massing of the bridge is much greater than usually built by the department during that period. The bridge is the result of a four-decade effort by promoters and entrepreneurs to have a bridge built across the Missouri River between Malta and Lewistown. The monumental size of the bridge reflects the big dreams of the people who lobbied hard to have it built. The bridge also best represents the highway department's steel girder designs adapted to unique site conditions in central Montana.
  • -  Survey number: HAER MT-196
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1956-1959 Initial Construction
  • -  Building/structure dates: 1996 Subsequent Work
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 12000171

Medium

  • Photo(s): 15
  • Data Page(s): 33
  • Photo Caption Page(s): 1

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HAER MT-196

Source Collection

  • Historic American Engineering Record (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • mt0690

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

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For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HAER MT-196
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, Howard E Stratton, N. A. Nelson Construction Company, American Bridge Company, Calmenson & Company Paper, Montana State Highway Commission, Caird Engineering, et al., Park, Robert C, photographer. Fred Robinson Bridge, Spanning Missouri River at milepost 88.0 on U.S. Highway 191, Lewistown, Fergus County, MT. Dy Junction Phillips County Fergus County Montana Lewistown, 1968. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/mt0690/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, C., Stratton, H. E., N. A. Nelson Construction Company, American Bridge Company, Paper, C. &. C., Montana State Highway Commission [...] Axline, J., Park, R. C., photographer. (1968) Fred Robinson Bridge, Spanning Missouri River at milepost 88.0 on U.S. Highway 191, Lewistown, Fergus County, MT. Dy Junction Phillips County Fergus County Montana Lewistown, 1968. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mt0690/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, et al., photographer by Park, Robert C. Fred Robinson Bridge, Spanning Missouri River at milepost 88.0 on U.S. Highway 191, Lewistown, Fergus County, MT. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mt0690/>.