The Fall of the Petersburg Road Bridge in Jackson, Minnesota
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Many of us know the song Over the River and Through the Woods to Grandmother’s House We Go. It was written in 1844 by Lydia Maria Child, originally for a Thanksgiving song, but has since become a holiday song that can be used for Christmas and other festivities.
The Petersburg Road Bridge, located on the south end of my childhood home of Jackson, Minnesota, embodied that folklore, especially for someone who always looked forward to visiting his grandma, growing up. In fact, the bridge itself was a bridge that brought families, neighbors, and friends together. The bridge was once a venue for a search party for two individuals who wandered off- luckily they were found unharmed. It was a place for fishing, conversing over serious themes, or simply used as a shortcut when walking somewhere. The bridge held a lot of personal memories for myself as well as those who lived in a neighborhood located on the south end of town, the same one where my grandma used to live.
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Facts about the Petersburg Bridge and Neighborhood
The Petersburg Bridge was built in its traditional fashion with a purpose- to provide a short cut and to bring neighbors and families closer together. It spanned the West Fork Des Moines River on Petersburg Road, just 500 feet south of US Hwy. 71 in the south end of Jackson. The first span used to be a wooden span built in the 1860s. It was one of dozens of bridges washed away by the floods of 1881. It was then replaced in 1884 by a two-span bowstring arch bridge and served traffic until its replacement in 1907. Joliet Bridge and Iron Company was contracted to construct a steel Pratt through truss bridge with pinned connections and a Howe lattice portals supported by 45° heel bracings. The five-panel truss span was 100 feet long; a south approach span of 50 feet was included in the construction. The bridge was rehabilitated in 1930, according to records by the state historical society. When the bridge was built, it carried a road through a neighborhood on the south end of town, which eventually took drivers to Petersburg, located eight miles SE of town. This was convenient as many rural families had sent their kids to school there before it closed in 1960, forcing them to attend school in Jackson. A restaurant, built in the 1920s was located at the junction of Petersburg Road and the main highway US 71 and 16. It was known by many names but many called the restaurant Bob’s because of the homemade burgers and other fast food.
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The Floods
Despite its location and hospitality, the Petersburg Road and Bridge had one flaw, which would eventually be proven fatal- they were both built in the low-lying area along the river. And while flooding was only a rare and mostly minor deal during the truss bridge’s first decades, it was beginning in the 1950s where the City of Jackson started having second thoughts about the area. The first round of flooding happened in 1953, and while the bridge was largely unaffected, a project was later carried out to realign the road to its present-day location along River Street, which ran 1.5 miles along the river to the junction of Ashley Street and the Red Owl Bridge.
12 years later in the spring of 1965, during the spring thaw, flooding hit Jackson and with that, the neighborhood along Petersburg Road and the bridge itself. The structure sustained damage to the deck, which was subsequentially replaced in 1967. Two springs later, the Flood of 1969 drove away most of the residents along Petersburg Road for good, for their houses and the bridge were completely underwater again. The homes that were left vacant were subsequentially taken over by the City, who demolished them.
The bridge remained open to traffic but with a 3-ton limit until inspections revealed structural deterioration especially with the lower chords and the lally columns. In the summer of 1984, the bridge was closed to all traffic except for bicycles and pedestrians. For the next eight years, one could only cross the bridge on foot. But that all changed in the early 1990s.
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The Fatal Blow and the End of the Bridge
The days of the Petersburg Road Bridge were numbered when floodwaters hit Jackson and the now vacant neighborhood along Petersburg Road during the final weeks of May 1993. Rainfall combined with ground saturation as a result of a colder than normal winter and previous summer formed the perfect combination for the Great Flood which broke previous records set in 1969. By May 21st, half the town in the river valley was underwater, including all the area along Petersburg Road. Even the bridge itself was underwater for weeks on end. It took until the end of July until the floodwaters receded and the ground was dry.
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When it was dry, I had a chance to walk to the bridge and survey the damage. The road was nothing more than a beach with rocks- it was unrecognizable going towards the bridge. But what led to the bridge’s demise was the collapse of the southern approach span, much of it was caused by debris that floated downstream and crashed into the bridge. The truss bridge span itself was OK but there was damage to the bottom chords. Given its history of being hit by floods and because of the damage done by this one, it was a foregone conclusion that its days were numbered.
On February 1, 1995, the bridge was torn down and sold for scrap metal. With that, came the end of the days where we had a bridge and a neighborhood, where people met on the structure and talked about life in town. Some brought their fishing gear and caught a few from the bridge. It was also a place of solitude for many who enjoyed a little quiet and nature. We all had our memories, but they were washed away with every flood that came into town.
The Petersburg Road and Bridge Today
There’s not much left of the neighborhood today, even as I write this. The property on the north end of the bridge is owned by an excavating company. It was the same company that tore the structure down in 1995. On the south end, a disc golf course has taken over. With its vast acres of land in place of the houses that existed, it serves as an ideal spot to try out the activity. Only a few houses along the former Petersburg Road are still standing and inhabited but these are the ones that are at the city limit along present-day River Street, where the ground is a bit higher.
Sadly, Bob’s Restaurant, located just north of the bridge, was torn down in 2021 after having been abandoned for a few years. The loss of Bob’s marked an end to 90+ years as a fast-food restaurant that served homemade foods, and it was a common weekend gathering spot. In its loving memory, I built an H0-scale replica in 2020 honoring the place where we gathered after every football game in high school. The interior mimicked the ones we remembered in the bygone era, but with a few extras, including photos of Jackson’s bridges on the inside and a mini-fireplace. That sits in our living room to this day and serves as a combination lamp and incense house- perfect for Christmas time. 🙂 ❤
Sometimes places like these have memories that are worth holding onto and passing down to the next generation. ❤ ❤
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The Bridgehunter's Chronicles 