MANDAN Historical Society

Working to Preserve & Promote Mandan's Heritage since 2004

Welcome

Membership

Activities

Ag Stn Centennial

History Harvest

TR-Coe Exhibit

WWII Exhibit

Museum & Office

Area History

Book: "Mantani"

The 1870s

The 1880s

Mandan Rodeo / Fair

School System History

The 1890s

The 1900s

1901 Pan Am Expo

1903 TR Visit to NDak

The 1910s

1910 Spring Flood

1911 Fair & Airplane Demo

1912 TR Whistle-Stop

The 1920s

Prohibition in Mandan

Mail Order Kit Homes

The 1930s

FDR Visit August 1936

The 1940s

The 1950s

1958 Lincoln Stamp FDC

Custer Drama / Trail West

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

1st of the 21st

2010-Present

Area Landmarks

Cary Bldg - Mandan Drug

CCC Camp Chimney

Christ the King Church

Collins Av Civic Bldg

First Lutheran Church

First National Bank Bldg

First Presbyterian Church

Great Plains Academy

Great Plains Expermt Stn

Lewis & Clark Hotel

2nd Liberty Memr'l Bridge

Mandan Hill

Mandan Theatre

MissValley Grocery Warehs

Methodist Church

NP Beanery

NP "Colonial" RR Depot

NPRR Freighthouse

NP Rail High Bridge

Roughrider Statue

St Joseph Church

Whispering Giant Statue

WWar Memorial Bldg

Youth Correctional Center

Gone Forever

Central School

Collins Ave Courthouse

Cummins Building

Deaconess Hospital

Eielson Field

Emerson Inst/Opera House

First St Federal Building

Havana Club

Hotel Nigey

InterOcean Hotel

Mandan Creamery & Produce

Mandan Flour Mill

Merchants Hotel

ND Memorial Bridge

NP "Queen Anne" Depot

Original Passenger Depot

Palace Theatre

Peoples' Hotel

Red Trail / State Route 3

Rock Haven

Topic Theatre

Young's Tavern

Heritage Homes

Altnow-Smith Home

Dunlap-Harris Home

Ellis-Uden Home

Freeburg-Esser Home

Lyon-Weigel Home

McGillic Home

Olson-Brick Home

Parkin-Cooley Home

Stutsman-Wyatt Home

Swanson-Reichman Home

Welch-Ness Home

Endowment Fund

Genealogy Links

Biographies A-C

J D Allen

Franklin Anders

Richard Baron

James Bellows

George Bingenheimer

Margaret Bingenheimer

Philip Blumenthal

Elijah Boley

Frank Briggs

Leo Broderick

William Broderick

Frank Bunting

Lyman Cary

James Clark

Henry Coe

Viola Boley Coe

Daniel Collins

Elizabeth Custer

George Custer

Biographies D-L

Alice Dahners

Henry Dahners

C E V (Charles) Draper

Esther Davis

Tony Dean

Joseph Devine

Ronald Erhardt

John Forbes

Palma Fristad

Gilbert Furness

Aloysius Galowitsch

Frederic Gerard

Zalmon Gilbert

Charles Grantier

James Hanley Jr

James Hanley Sr

Mary Harris

C Edgar Haupt

Elfriede Trinkler Kuhn

Michael Lang

William Langer

Albert Lanterman

William Lanterman

Richard Longfellow

Rolland Lutz

Hiram Lyon

Biographies M-R

George Marback

Gary Miller

Lee Mohr

Margaret Naylor

John Newton

Anton Ness

John Osterhouse

George Peoples

Arthur Peterson

Nels Romer

Hoy Russell

Walton Russell

Antonie Rybnicek

Ervin Rybnicek

Hynek Rybnicek

Biographies S-Z

Margaret Schaaf

Tilden Selmes Jr

George Shafer

Benjamin Shaw

William Simpson

Anna Knox Stark

Mary Stark

Benjamin Stephenson

J O Sullivan

John Sullivan

Era Bell Thompson

Andrew E Thorberg

Ida Thorberg

C L Timmerman

George Toman

Earle Tostevin

Edwin A Tostevin Sr

Edwin D Tostevin Jr

Walter Tostevin

Felix Vinatieri

A B Welch

Levon West

Frank Wetzstein

Harry Wheeler

Philomena Yunck

View Collections

Artifacts - Miscellanous

Newspapers

Pottery and Glass

Photos - Buildings

Photos - Downtown

Photos - Floods

Photos - People

Photos - Rail and Trains

What's New

ND Memorial Bridge
North Dakota Memorial Bridge in 1922 (Looking NW)
The North Dakota Memorial Bridge (later redesignated as the ND Liberty Memorial Bridge) was the first automotive bridge to span the Missouri River in North Dakota.  Located on a highway designated as State Highway 6 in 1922 (designated as US Highway 10 in 1926), it was dedicated to the young men and women who served and died in World War I.  Two boulders, taken from North Dakota prairies, placed at each end by the ND Chapter of the American War Mothers, hold plaques honoring their sons and daughters and were installed in 1924.

The bridge boasts Warren-Turner design style trusses spanning 200 feet above the bottom of the lowest pier.  Eight thousand rivets were driven into these trusses during their construction.

David Carey, his wife and four children arrived here in 1879. John McGinley rowed them across the Missouri River in a skiff in the middle of a heavy wind storm and they almost lost their life during the crossing.

Mr. Carey had originally moved from Illinois to get work on construction of the Northern Pacific Railway bridge.  He and his family almost lost their life during their first river crossing.  He helped to build the first railroad bridge across the Missouri in North Dakota.

So when the bridge was completed, the 86-year-old man made it a point, despite a wait for many hours, to be the first to cross it in an automobile.  He would remark, "I am thankful I lived to see this day."

Aerial Photograph showing gravel roads on each side of paved bridge approaches (Photo Date 1933 17Aug)
The concrete approaches, girded on either side by North Dakota made brick, lead to the bridge; the one on the Bismarck side being 400 feet long but the Mandan side extends 625 feet.  The main bridge deck and original approaches are 26 feet 6 inches feet wide supplemented by pedestrial walkways 4 feet 4 inches wide.

The base of the eastern river pier is abouth 41 feet below normal water level and 101 feet below the roadway.  The base of the western river pier is approximately 74 fee below water level and 134 feet below the road deck.

The open well method was used in the pier construction.  Workforce peaked at 250 with crews working day and night.  Twice during the preliminary work on the bridge the construction trestle was torn out, once by ice and once by an unusually high June rise in the river level.  Construction was begun in 1920 and a three-day dedication event held in September 1922.

The total cost of the $1,358,000 ($23.5 million 2024$) bridge was born jointly by the Federal Government, the State of North Dakota, Morton and Burleigh Counties.

<Click to Enlarge>
The bridge connected Mandan and Bismarck on as ND State Highway 6.  For the first 2 years of operation, this road which stretched for 4 miles in the rural area between from Mandan's east Main Street to the intersection of Bismarck's Front Avenue and Hannifin Street.  At that time, Bismarck's west Main Avenue was connected to the intersection by a 3-block long dogleg road segment which passed north to south under the railroad's viaduct to that intersection.

In 1924, construction was completed to to upgrade it to a 2-lane concrete surface; and on May 30, 2025 (i.e., Memorial Day), the roadway to and from the bridge was redesignated as Memorial Highway, to honor the men and women who gave their life in service to their nation.

Construction of a 4-lane replacement bridge was started in 2006 after the stone piers began to deteriorate as the salt compounds used to remove the ice and snow from the bridge deck corroded the grout.  The new Liberty Memorial Bridge, dedicated on November 11, 2008, honors all veterans who gave their life in service to their country.

The original bridge was demolished with explosive charges and removed in pieces from the river bed.  Several additional efforts to remove enough of the underwater original structure were required to adequately assure safe passage of marine traffic.

Note: The direct connection to the west end of Bismarck's Main Avenue was not installed until 1959. A viaduct was installed 200 feet southeast of the previous at-grade rail crossing to allow a straight out paved extensions from both Bismarck's Main & Rosser Avenues to allow the railroad tracks to pass over and continue north away from the car traffic.

Previously, traffic east of the bridge was largely on Memorial Highway (i.e., West Front Avenue) with access to Main Avenue via a dog-legged road and under-track viaduct from the Main Avenue at Washington Street to Front Avenue and Hannifin Street.  The dogleg viaduct was eliminated as part of the 1994 Washington Street Reconstruction Project as new bridges were installed for Main Avenue and the railroad tracks.

The MHSoc's museum and office is located at 3827 30th Avenue NW; Mandan, ND 58554
Contact us at info@mandanhistory.org


Last Updated 05/17
/25    ©  2006-2025  Mandan Historical Society   All rights reserved