At Hastings, there is a tall bluff on the north side of the Mississippi
River. A conventional bridge would have required a long approach on
the southern side. The problem is that a long approach would cause
traffic to bypass downtown Hastings. Building a spiral solved the
problem—it allowed traffic to enter and exit from Main Street
downtown Hastings, yet the approach gained the elevation needed to
allow the bridge to be level. When built, this was the only spiral
wagon and automobile bridge in the US, and only 2 are known to have
been built in Europe.
The old bridge served for many years. But due to neglect, the steel
rusted, and towards the end, the bridge could only support 4 tons,
which prevented truck traffic from crossing the river. The new bridge
was built shortly after WWII. The old bridge was given to the City of
Hastings, but they could not afford to maintain it. An effort by the
citizens also failed to raise the needed money. As a result, the old
bridge was removed in the mid-1950s. As soon as it was torn down, the
city realized they had made a mistake. The Spiral Bridge was a symbol
of the city for decades. Now days, when someone in Hastings wants to
tear down a historic building, the cry goes out to remember what
happened to the spiral bridge.
Hastings residents Steve and Sylvia Bauer took that cry to heart. They
collected historical buildings from around Hastings and founded the Little
Log House Pioneer Village. A star attraction in the village is a replica
of the Spiral Bridge, complete with a model of the Mississippi River.
The photos above and below are views of the replica bridge. The statistics
at the top of the page are for the real spiral bridge as it once existed.
The photo above is an end view of the replica Spiral Bridge. To find
the replica, head south out of Hastings on US-61, then turn to the east
on 220th Street. The replica will be about one-half mile east of US-61.
The photo below is the marker erected at the site of the former Hastings
Spiral Bridge along the waterfront in the City of Hastings.
The photos above and below are two views of the only remaining footings
of the Spiral Bridge. This footing is located on the Hastings side of
the river in a park that runs along the Mississippi River. One can
see a rectangular depression in the top of the capstone where one of
the metal legs of the bridge once rested.
