Nps Form 10-900 - National Register Of Historic Places Registration Form Page 10
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22United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service / National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
NPS Form 10-900
OMB No. 1024-0018
Bridge No. 4969
Morrison County, MN
Name of Property
County and State
In that year, the Minnesota National Guard comprised 5,057 members, as compared to the pre-
Defense Act strength of approximately 3,200 National Guard members (United States, National
Guard Bureau 1914:103, 1921;60; Rhinow 1922:10).
Rhinow followed up in 1924 by noting the federal government’s refusal to provide Minnesota
with funding for National Guard encampment improvements until such time as the state
committed to a plan for a permanent training camp, as the War Department had determined that
Camp Lakeview could “only be classed as temporary and wholly inadequate at all times”
(Rhinow 1924:8). An adequate camp, he recommended, necessitated situating the encampment
on a railroad main line to facilitate quick mobilization, in relative proximity to the 40 percent of
the National Guard units stationed in the Twin Cities, and in an area extensive enough to house
100 percent of the units concurrently, small-arms and artillery target practice, and all
quartermaster activities.
When Ellard A. Walsh assumed the post of Adjutant General in 1927, he set out to institute a
Minnesota National Guard camp that met the necessary criteria (Johnson n.d.:2). The location of
the selected site was contingent on the availability of proximate transportation routes. When
Walsh determined that the site near Little Falls was the clear frontrunner for the placement of the
training camp, it was due in no small part to the presence of the Northern Pacific main line and
State Trunk Highway 27 (now Trunk Highway 371) a mere one-quarter mile to the east; mere, if
not for the fact that these were separated from the site by the Mississippi River. A bridge,
therefore, over the river to allow for a railroad spur and a connection to the highway would be
the linchpin of the camp’s operation, permitting the transportation of both personnel and
supplies.
Under the assumption that the construction of this bridge would be achievable, the National
Guard publicly announced its selection of the Morrison County site in June of 1929 (Little Falls
Daily Transcript 1929b). In early December of that year, General Walsh met with the Executive
Assistant to the President of the Northern Pacific, John H. Poore, on two separate occasions to
discuss the construction, siting, and design of the bridge (Poore 1929a, 1929b). The National
Guard wished to have the railroad spur “parallel to and in close proximity with the south line [of
the encampment]” (Poore 1929b), where it could “extend to the supply depots and other
unloading points [that would be situated] near the end of the site” (Little Falls Daily Transcript
1930b); thus Walsh and Poore determined it was necessary for the bridge to cross the Mississippi
River south of the south line of the encampment. Another outcome of the meetings was the basic
concept for the bridge as “both a highway and a railroad bridge, with either a 20 or 24-foot
roadway with track set in the center” (Poore 1929b). Poore (1929b) subsequently requested that
Howard E. Stevens, the Northern Pacific’s Vice President of Operations, have a survey
performed to identify the best location for the bridge in the area south of the camp and provide
sketches and cost estimates for both the 20- and 24-foot options. As a bridge intended to serve
traffic both highway and railroad, civilian and military, and passenger and freight, its design
required the approval of not only the National Guard and the Northern Pacific, but also the State
Section 8 page 10
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