The Bridge Question

BRIDGE

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 1/29/2011 at 10:59:34

Dubuque Herald, February 11, 1865

THE BRIDGE QUESTION

Shall the Mississippi be bridged at Dubuque? This question is of the liveliest interest to the people of Dubuque and all the country west of it. At one time it was a debatable question and two classes of opponents to the measure appeared.
Onne class argued that the natural highway and channel of commerce of Iowa and all country west of the Mississippi was down that stream-that its navigation would be seriously obstructed by a bridge, a wrong forbidden by the fundamental law of the land-that our natural friends, commercially speaking, were in the latitudes south, and our exchanges must always be more multiplied and intimate with the south, than the east-that our production and theirs could never be the same; we would manufacture, they would plant; we would raise corn, beef and pork, they cotton, hemp, sugar and tobacco; we would build vessels and man them; they would supply return freights and customers for our own products. Under the influence of these views the case went to the courts, and has been adjudicated, and the policy of bridging is sustained.
Another class of persons were opposed to the bridge because they had a ferry. A few of these creatures are still left and they are to be pitied or execrated according as they are foolish or knavish.
We desire Dubuque to grow, make it for the interest of the whole country that such growth should be. If we wish a large trade to centre here, make it for the interest of all who buy and sell to come here for that purpose.
It is fortunate for us, that our city, county, and state authorities are all agreed in this, and are willing to give all proper aid to the enterprise. The Illinois Central Railway is under legal obligation to bridge at this point, and the Iowa delegation, we doubt not, will see to it that that obligation is discharged.