Upper Twin Falls Road over the Menominee River | National or State Registers Record | Wisconsin Historical Society

National or State Registers Record

Upper Twin Falls Road over the Menominee River

National or State Register of Historic Places
Upper Twin Falls Road over the Menominee River | National or State Registers Record | Wisconsin Historical Society
NAMES
Historic Name:Upper Twin Falls Bridge
Reference Number:12001028
PROPERTY LOCATION
Location (Address):Upper Twin Falls Road over the Menominee River
County:Florence
City/Village:
Township:Florence
SUMMARY
Upper Twin Falls Bridge
Upper Twin Falls Road over Menominee River, Town of Florence, Florence County, Wisconsin and Breitung Township, Dickinson County, Michigan
Dates of construction: 1910-1911
Designer: Martin W. Torkelson

The Upper Twin Falls Bridge is a camelback steel through truss structure built in 1910 to 1911 that spans the channel of the Menominee River on the Michigan-Wisconsin border. Engineer Martin W. Torkelson of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey's Highway Division designed the 145 foot long bridge and it was built by the Central States Bridge Company of Indiana.

The bridge is connected to the mainland via two long causeways. Though not a massive project by today's standards, the construction of the quarter-mile long causeway system, which required earth fill embankments about twenty-five feet across at the top and up to about twenty-five feet in height to span the broadened river that would back up behind the dam, was an impressive civil engineering work for the period.

The bridge is an example of a camelback truss, a late nineteenth-century variation of the Parker truss, distinguished by its specifically five-slope top chord. The five-slope design allowed for greater standardization and better stress distribution, while being more economical to construct. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the camelback truss was most commonly used for highway bridge spans of 100 to 200 feet.

The Upper Twin Falls Bridge was closed to traffic in September 1971. The bridge and causeway system were initially open to pedestrian use, but access is now restricted because of the severe deterioration of the concrete bridge deck.

PROPERTY FEATURES
Period of Significance:1910-1911
Area of Significance:Engineering
Applicable Criteria:Architecture/Engineering
Historic Use:Transportation: Road-Related
Historic Use:Recreation And Culture: Monument/Marker
Architectural Style:Other
Resource Type:Structure
Architect:Torkelson, Martin W.
Architect:Central States Bridge Company
DESIGNATIONS
Historic Status:Listed in the State Register
Historic Status:Listed in the National Register
National Register Listing Date:12/12/2012
State Register Listing Date:08/24/2012
NUMBER OF RESOURCES WITHIN PROPERTY
Number of Contributing Buildings:0
Number of Contributing Sites:0
Number of Contributing Structures:3
Number of Contributing Objects:0
Number of Non-Contributing Sites:0
Number of Non-Contributing Structures:3
Number of Non-Contributing Objects:1
RECORD LOCATION
National Register and State Register of Historic Places, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin

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National Register of Historic Places Citation
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