I have shared many times that I love bridges and have shared a few here on Travel Gumbo. Thus it shouldn’t be a surprise that I found a beautiful bridge while we were in Bismark, North Dakota that I just had to share. It is called the Liberty Memorial Bridge, although it is also known as the Missouri River Bridge. This remarkable bridge connects the “twin cities” of Bismarck and Mandan, North Dakota, It is a Warner-Turner through truss structure that was built in 1920, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997. It was removed from the National Register in 2009.
It is stated that this bridge was “the first roadway bridge constructed across the Missouri River, one of the most important waterways in the state” of North Dakota. Not only did the bridge connect the ‘twin cities’ of Bismarck and Mandan, but for the first time eastern and western North Dakota were joined by a continuous roadway. The bridge was also a final link in the coast-to-coast roadway later designated as U.S. Highway 10. An interesting fact was that it is the only Warren-Turner through truss bridge ever built in the state.
