Iowa Old Press

Maquoketa Sentinel
Maquoketa, Jackson County, Iowa
August 10, 1854

MISSISSIPPI BRIDGE
The work on the Railroad bridge across the Mississippi at this point is steadily progressing. This morning we noticed that the stone work for the bridge from this city to the island is all completed, but about five or six feet on the abutment adjoining the city. There is a strong force at work on that, and the contractor, John Warner, Esq. thinks it will be completed in about two weeks, ready for the superstructure. The abutment on the Iowa shore for the bridge across the main channel of the river will contain about 800 rods of masonry, 500 of which is already laid and the work would have been commenced upon the piers before this time, but for the rise in the rivers. The grading of the island is going ahead rapidly, and will probably be completed in a very few weeks.-Rock Island Republican, 29th.

[Transcribers note: In 1856 the steamboat Effie Afton struck this bridge and sunk. A lawsuit followed for obstructing navigation against the company that built the bridge. Abraham Lincoln defended the bridge company in the lawsuit. -Transcribed by K.W., May 2009]

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