While this bridge is officially the South Omaha Veterans Memorial Bridge, it is often referred to as the South Omaha Bridge or the Veterans Memorial Bridge. This series of photos were taken on September 7, 2009, the last full day that the structure was open to traffic. The bridge was closed permanently the next morning. The western trestle spans were in the way of the new replacement bridge, resulting in this river crossing being closed until the new bridge is open for traffic. That is expected to be in May, 2010.

For many years, the Douglas Street Bridge, located just downstream of the present day I-480 Ford Bridge, was the only highway crossing in the Omaha area. Residents complained about that bridge being so far away from the south side of Omaha and the southern suburbs. The city of Omaha attempted to issue bonds for a new bridge in 1931. Due to the depression, the bond issue failed. In 1933, the city formed the ‘Omaha Bridge Commission’ to apply for government loans to build a toll bridge.

The original 1933 bridge design called for seven truss spans of 400 feet each. The US Army Corps of Engineers, however, was working on a plan to alter the course of the Missouri River to consolidate two smaller branches of the river into a single navigation channel. The bridge design was altered to be a single long Warren through truss structure with two 525-foot long spans. Construction on the bridge began in 1934. Since the river channel had not yet been modified, the bridge was built over dry land. That made construction easier, but it was an unusual sight to see a large bridge crossing open prairie when the bridge was opened to traffic on January 18, 1936. The river channel was diverted that summer, resulting in the navigation channel being under the western of the two spans under the truss structure. The bridge loans were paid off in 1947 and the tolls were lifted on September 25 of that year.

Two issues conspired to bring an end to this structure. First, the bridge was narrow. At 22 feet, it had no shoulders, no sidewalks, and while it was very tight for cars, it was too narrow for two large trucks to comfortably meet on the structure. The other issue is that the structure had deteriorated. A project in the late 1990s extended the life of the bridge, but by that time, weight limits had to be placed on the bridge. Those weight limits were reduced further and an 8-foot height limit was imposed on the structure in 2008. By that time, a replacement bridge was underway. While the new bridge would be built parallel to the 1936 structure, the trestle spans on the Nebraska end of the 1936 bridge were in the way of the path of the western spans of the new bridge. As a result, the bridge was closed permanently on September 8, 2009 at 9:00 AM.