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A Christmas Road Race in Tropico

This intriguing headline appeared in the December 22, 1914, issue of the Pomona Daily Review. The “Tropico Speed Contest” was an amateur road race held on Christmas morning in Tropico, California, and it took place on a two-mile course with many sharp turns, including a hairpin turn at “San Fernando Road and the Pacific Electric Tracks.” In the days leading up to the affair, the drivers hyped it by promising a thrilling performance and declaring that they were “out for blood.”

The main event was a free-for-all with a $100 purse, and a drawing was held to determine numbers and places. The distance was 20 laps, or 40 miles, and this list of cars and drivers was printed in the Los Angeles Evening Express, albeit with a number of typos.

There was also a 30-mile motorcycle race, and a 20-mile race for lightweight cycle cars. The entrants for the cycle car race were as follows:

This photo of Les Rawson, driver of the #17 Christie, being supervised by one Lucille King was also published, but with no explanation as to the identity of Miss King.

There were two additional exhibition races that were referred to as “freak” races. The first of these was a race between two rival jitney bus drivers to settle the question of superiority once and for all. The following comic strip by Gale at the L. A. Times, titled “Mr. T. Wad Certainly Opened Up His Jitney Bus at Tropico!” was published the day before the race.

The other was a race for automobiles considered “antediluvian,” or ancient. One entrant in that race, 73-year-old Tom Morris, declared that he would be taking the turns “wide open.” The Los Angeles Times noted that “wide open” meant fifteen miles per hour provided the racer showed an unexpected burst of speed. Here is a photo of Morris with his automobile, a 1901 Peerless.

Women were not allowed to drive in the race, but some women did enter their cars with a “brother, sweetheart, or friend” driving. Those women were Adele Martin, Helen Holmes, and Jeanne Warden, and it was reported that both Martin and Warden were personally tuning and stripping their cars as well as plotting strategy for the course. One article referred to Holmes as an actress, and there was an actress by that name born in 1893 according to IMDB.

The winner of the cycle car race was H. Lindley in a Mercedes, but the winner of the main event was a druggist named Waldo Throop. Throop had been a sprinter at USC and was among the fastest in the country in 1910, running the 100 in 9.8 seconds. At Tropico, he won the purse and bragging rights in a Ford with a time of 50:15 4-5. R. Dorney drove a Studebaker to second place 40 seconds later, and third place went to G. Pulliam in Helen Holme’s Studebaker, just 21 seconds behind Dorney. There was some controversy as that third-place finish was protested by A. Austria who claimed his Knox was leading Pulliam’s Studebaker at the checkered flag. Also, the driver in the headline at the top of this story, Earl Pitts, claimed he passed 22 of the 24 machines and should have placed.

Waldo Throop is pictured below, the man on the right, and then again in his winning Ford:

This photo is of Helen Holmes in the third-place Studebaker:

There was one crash involving a Buick, but no serious injuries, so the race was a success all the way around. The second annual Tropico race was held on Thanksgiving Day the following year, but a third was not to be. There was no report of why the race was discontinued, but there was a war going on, and then Tropico ceased to exist a few years later when it consolidated with Glendale in 1918. Whatever the reason, it was likely a great disappointment to the thousands of spectators that spent that Christmas Day in 1914 taking in the excitement of the speed, rivalries, and hairpin turns at the Tropico races.

Merry Christmas!

1925 Detroit Motor News Cover

Sources:

“Bill Throop Had Merely a Rebuilt Ford but Ran Like Sin and a Victory Scored.” Ventura Weekly Post and Democrat, 1 January 1915, p. 1.

“Nineteen-Year-Old Boy Does ‘100’ in 8 4-5 Seconds.” Passaic Daily News, 5 October 1910, p. 4.

“Old Car Enters Tropico Race.” Los Angeles Times, 22 December 1914, p. 25.

“Pomona Driver Says Tropico Auto Race Was Unjustly Judged.” 26 December 1914, p. 1.

“Pomona Driver Will Enter Christmas Race.” Pomona Daily Review, 22 December 1914, p. 9.

“Races Again at Tropico.” Pomona Daily Review, 9 November 1915, p. 2.

“Tropico Has Gone Speed Crazy.” Los Angeles Times, 24 December 1914, p. 24.

“Tropico is Busy for Speed Event.” Los Angeles Evening Express, 23 December 1914, p. 4.

“Tropico Ready for Auto Race Set for Tomorrow.” Los Angeles Evening Express, 24 December 1914, p. 3.

“Tropico Road Race Success.” Los Angeles Times, 26 December 1914, p. 6.

“Waldo Throop Wins Tropico Road Race.” San Francisco Examiner, 26 December 1914, p. 14.

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Lost Brands: 1914 Photo of a Sampson Hauling a Marathon

In the early days of the automobile industry, it must have been difficult to keep track of the many car and truck brands appearing and disappearing at a rapid rate. Two of these makes are pictured in the above 1914 newspaper photo that was captioned as follows: “Linz & Sanborn Company’s economical way of delivering a Marathon car and a Sampson truck to one customer.” Unfortunately for that customer, one of these companies was already defunct, and the other would not be around much longer.

The four-cylinder Marathon automobile was produced from 1908 to 1914 in first Jackson, and then Nashville, Tennessee, and it was the first car manufactured entirely in the south. According to the Tennessee State Museum, the cars were first called Southerns, but the name had to be changed due to the existence of another automobile by that name. The name Marathon was chosen because anything related to ancient Greece was very in vogue at the time. The company went bankrupt shortly after the above photo was published and was purchased by Herff-Brooks of Indiana.

The Sampson truck, frequently misspelled as “Samson” in the early newspapers, was built by the Alden Sampson Manufacturing Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In 1911, it was purchased by the United States Motor Company, a conglomerate Benjamin Briscoe put together in an attempt to emulate General Motors. This 1911 advertisement refers to the Alden Sampson Manufacturing Company as the “truck division” of United States Motor Company.

The fine print near the bottom of the page explains that the 1,000-pound capacity truck pictured was the smallest Sampson available, and that Sampson also had trucks available in 1-ton, 2-ton, 3-ton, 4-ton, 5-ton, and Motor Train 20-ton capacity. Along with Sampson, other brands under the United States Motor umbrella included Maxwell-Briscoe, Columbia, Stoddard-Dayton, and Brush. The United States Motor Co. failed in 1912, and the Sampson ended with it. Jonathan Maxwell purchased the assets and formed the Maxwell Motor Company, which eventually became Chrysler.

General Motors produced a “Samson” truck, this time spelled without the “p,” a few years later. The production of that truck stemmed from GM’s 1917 purchase of the Samson Sieve-Grip Tractor Company of Stockton, California, all part of William Durant’s bid to compete with Henry Ford’s success in the manufacturing of farm equipment.

After purchasing the tractor company, GM expanded the Samson line to include a truck as seen in this 1921 advertisement for “The Samson Truck – a General Motors Product.”

This truck did not last long either, however, with the entire Samson division closing in 1923. The 1920 Samson pictured below sits at Pioneer Village in Minden, Nebraska, a place where you can find many rare and wonderful examples of cars and trucks from the earliest days of the American automobile industry.

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Another Idea for a Two-Engine Automobile

The sheer number of ingenious Americans that eagerly dove into developing and improving automobiles around the turn of the century is nothing short of amazing. The following article about one of those men, Henry K. Hess, appeared in a 1902 newspaper.

A search of the patent database indicates that Hess was a prolific inventor and holder of many patents. From 1901 to 1905, he was granted several related to steam-powered automobiles. These patents include ideas for both the overall design of the system and improvements to pieces of it such as the means for producing combustion, the distribution of fuel in the combustion chamber, and the maintaining of a uniform degree of steam pressure.

1902 advertisement for Locomobile steam cars

The technology for steam engines, and even steam-propelled road vehicles, had been around for centuries, and a number of steam-powered cars were developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Many of them used kerosene for fuel, but, like Hess’s charcoal version, other types of fuel were experimented with. There were barriers to be overcome with steam, however: The engines were heavy and slow to start, the fuel was bulky, hot ashes needed to be removed, and the engines needed to be supplied with water in addition to fuel.

Gasoline-powered internal combustion engines also had problems. They had to be started with hand cranks, and many serious injuries were caused by the cranks kicking back during the perilous process. People were also concerned about the dangers and cost of gasoline as seen in the following letter inquiring about the Hess Charcoal Burner that appeared in a 1903 issue of Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal. The publication’s answer appears underneath the letter.

Henry K. Hess also wrote a letter in response:

Hess obtained another very interesting patent in 1909 for the design of a self-propelled vehicle that featured two motors. Unlike the Carter Two-Engine Car which was patented in 1907 and focused mostly on reliability, Hess’s main focus was on efficiency. His idea was to incorporate both an internal combustion engine and a steam engine, operating both with the same fuel required for the operation of the gas motor by using the heat of the exploded gases to generate steam to power the steam engine:

“It is well known that the temperature of these exploded gases reaches a very high degree, far in excess of that produced by any open flame burner, and that in many self-propelled vehicles in which gas or vapor engines are used as the motive power apparatus, the highly heated products of combustion are allowed to escape into the atmosphere, thereby losing a considerable power which I have sought to utilize to generate steam for the operation of a steam engine in conjunction with a gas engine.“

According to the patent, both engines could be employed either individually or jointly in the propulsion of the vehicle.

“Another distinguishing feature of my present device is the clutch mechanism of the transmission gear, whereby I am enabled to throw either or both engines into and out of operative connection with the running gear of the vehicle so that the vehicle may be propelled by either the steam engine or gas engine alone, or both may be combined to transmit power to a single shaft which makes it possible to use this combination in the propulsion of boats as well as wheel vehicles.“

These are the drawings included with Hess’s patent:

In addition to operating two engines with the same amount of fuel required for one, Hess pointed out other advantages to his design such as eliminating the open flame commonly used with steam and obviating the need for exhaust mufflers. Unfortunately for Hess, steam mostly fell by the wayside with the invention of the electric start for the internal combustion engine and the production of Henry Ford’s affordable and plentiful Model T. A search of old newspapers indicates that Hess may have gone on to become a building contractor in Syracuse. It does not appear that he ever found success in the automobile industry, and that is a shame because he had so many innovative ideas.

1922 Ford Model T Coupe
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Another Early Anti-Glare Headlight Lens

The very modern problem of headlight glare has roots going back to the earliest days of automobile travel. Companies such as Osgood and Liberty developed some interesting lenses in an attempt to alleviate the problem, and Warner-Patterson also took a stab at it with this unique lens that looks like it is covered with bubbles:

The company called it a Warner-Lenz, and it is marked with a 1912 patent date. The following description of the lens appeared in a 1917 issue of the Automobile Trade Journal:

On the front of the Warner-Lenz are rows of small lenses and on the back are similar rows which overlap so that all the light coming from the lamp is diffused in a spray which covers almost 180 deg. with a gradual reduction of intensity toward the sides. The light is thrown all over the road and on both sides so that everything in front of the car may be clearly seen for from 300 to 500 ft. in front of the car.

The New York Secretary of State officially declared the Warner-Lenz to be legal, according to this 1918 advertisement. The square in the middle of the page also contains the names of makes that were using the lens as standard equipment with Packard and Stutz topping the list.

The ad also claims there were more than a million pairs of these lenses in use at this time. Whether that statement is truth or hyperbole, there do not seem to be too many survivors. There are currently only a handful of listings on eBay with prices ranging from $59 to $299.

1920 Stutz Bearcat Series H Roadster with Warner-Lenz headlight lenses
Attribution: Sicnag, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Ford Spyder Hubcaps

We have a guide for early Ford V8 hubcaps that you can access by clicking here, and I am going to add to it with this recent find:

This is an original 1937 Ford dealer accessory wheel cover that is unofficially referred to as a Spyder, or sometimes Spider, hubcap. Officially, Ford called it a “Hub and Spoke Cover” as seen in this 1936 Genuine Ford Accessories brochure:

Similar versions were offered for the years 1936 and 1937, although the markings were recessed for ’36 and raised for ’37. This is what one looks like installed:

Attribution: nakhon100, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. This photo has been cropped.

For 1938, the wheel covers were revamped with a larger V8 symbol:

The 1938 version was carried over for use in 1939, as well. All three versions have been reproduced, but the originals were made of stainless steel and were of good quality. This 1936 advertisement includes them in some gift ideas for those lucky enough to own a Ford V8. Notice the catchy poem!

Photo from the 1937 Ford brochure

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A Rare Radiator Cap

Over the last several weeks, we traveled the highways and byways in search of car parts on the Highway 36 Treasure Hunt, the Nebraska Junk Jaunt, and the Highway 136 Trail of Treasures. We found many amazing parts, some of which will be featured here in the coming weeks, but this radiator cap is my favorite find of all:

The seller of this cap did not know what it was, and other shoppers guessed “Rolls Royce” due to the winged “R”. It does not, in fact, belong to a Rolls.

This ornate cap was originally found on a Rockne, manufactured by Rockne Motors Corporation, a Studebaker subsidiary, and named for legendary Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne after his tragic death. The coach was enroute to Los Angeles when the airplane he was in burst into flames and crashed near Bazaar, Kansas, on March 31, 1931, just days after being named manager of the Studebaker sales promotion department. The coach and the car manufacturer were a natural pairing as Studebaker and Notre Dame were both institutions of South Bend, and Rockne had been traveling the country giving “pep” talks to Studebaker salesmen. One newspaper article said that he was employed by Studebaker to boost sales “through his knowledge of psychology and ability to lead men.”

Studebaker created the new Rockne as a memorial to the late coach, and it was launched in December of 1931. The first one manufactured was presented to Mrs. Knute Rockne, the widow of the coach. At the unveiling, Studebaker president Albert Erskine said, “It seems to be highly fitting that the finest qualities of Knute Rockne, the man, should be so brilliantly reflected and recalled by as fine an automobile as the Rockne Six will be. It is a source of great pride to us and to his family that this new automobile will honor his name and perpetuate his memory.”

The 1932 Rockne was available in two lines, the “65” and the “75,” with prices starting at $585 and $685.

It was a great-looking car, and reasonably priced, but in 1932 it had to compete with the new Ford V8 which was available at even lower prices:

For 1933, the Rockne Six was offered in the Model 10. It is shown as a sedan with suicide doors in the top photo below, and you can just make out the radiator cap:

When Studebaker’s Paul G. Hoffman introduced the 1933 models to a group of Studebaker salesmen and dealers at a Boston meeting in December of 1932, he was quoted as saying, “Our challenge to depression – there they are!”

Unfortunately, the Depression won this one. In Stephen Longstreet’s history of Studebaker, A Century on Wheels, he put it this way: “The Rockne Six was well engineered, well built. It was also low-priced. But even that price was too much for a nation selling apples at street corners.” Although sales were not bad for a brand-new automobile, Studebaker was facing serious financial problems, and the Rockne was not produced after 1933.

Coach Rockne’s personal car was a Studebaker President Eight Victoria. It was reported in September of 1931 that one of Rockne’s former players, John Edward “Jack” Chevigny, had purchased this car from the coach’s widow. Chevigny is the Notre Dame player that made the famous “That’s one for the Gipper” touchdown in Notre Dame’s game against Army on November 10, 1928. Chevigny was also a United States Marine Corps officer, and, tragically, he was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Sources:

Advertisement. Ford. The Kansas City Star, 31 Mar. 1932, p. 15.

Advertisement. Rockne Six. Argus Leader [Sioux Falls], 30 Dec. 1932, p. 10.

Advertisement. Rockne Six. The Atlanta Journal, 8 Jan. 1933, p. 15.

“Coach Rockne Killed When Plane Crashes.” The Lafayette Sun, 1 Apr. 1931, p. 1.

“Depression Is Challenged Now.” The Boston Globe, 7 Dec. 1932, p. 30.

“First Rockne Auto Is Given to His Widow.” Battle Creek Moon Journal, 23 Dec. 1931, p. 9.

Fraley, Oscar. “Johnny Has Gone to Join the Gipper and the Rock.” The News and Observer [Raleigh, NC], 28 Mar. 1945, p. 9.

“Jack Chevigny Dies on Iwo Jima.” Buffalo Courier Express, 25 Mar 1945, p. 18.

Longstreet, Stephen. A Century on Wheels: The Story of Studebaker, A History, 1852-1952, New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1952.

“Loud Explosion and Spurting Flames in Murky Sky Heralded Disaster Which Claimed Life of Rockne and 7 Others.” Daily American Republic [Poplar Bluff, MO], 31 Mar. 1931, p. 1.

“New Rockne Six Expected To Be 1932 Sensation.” The Fresno Bee, 2 Dec. 1931, p. 12.

“New Studebaker, Rockne Shown.” The Atlanta Journal, 8 Jan. 1933, p. 15.

“Rockne Accepts Studebaker Job.” The South Bend Tribune, 24 Mar. 1931, p. 5.

“Rockne Joins Studebaker.” Press of Atlantic City, 25 Mar. 1931, p. 12.

“Rockne’s Life.” Los Angeles Evening Post Record, 31 Mar. 1931, p. 1.

“Studebaker Announces New ‘Memorial’ Car.” Kansas City Journal, 1 Dec. 1931, p. 10.

“Studebaker Rockne Six Makes Debut.” The Herald Palladium [St. Joseph, MI], 1 Dec. 1931, p. 11.

Whitaker, John. “Speculating In Sports.” The Times [Hammond, IN], 4 Sept. 1931, p. 22.

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Multi-Car Families in America

The post-war economic boom in America resulted in an increase in the number of multi-car households. According to the 1959-60 edition of the Automobile Manufacturers Association’s publication titled “Automobile Facts and Figures,” that number grew 67 percent in the short span of five years. By the end of the 1950s, more than 18 percent of car-owning families and 13.5 percent of all families owned two or more cars. The idea of owning multiple cars was not just a product of the fifties, however. Prior to the war and the Great Depression, multi-car ownership had been a very hot topic during the roaring twenties.

1929 Franklin advertisement

The automobile was initially regarded as a luxury, but the introduction of large-scale production resulted in lower prices, which in turn made one automobile, and sometimes more than one, available to the average family. Surveys conducted by the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce and the General Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1926 reported that 18 percent of car-owning families and 10 percent of all families owned multiple automobiles. That information caused ripples of excitement throughout the car industry, and many industry insiders commented on the record. In one interview, A. R. Clancy, president of the Oakland Motor Car Company, explained that four factors made up the automotive market: exports, replacements, natural growth or “virgin” market, and two-car families. He believed all had tremendous growth potential. In a separate interview, R. S. Cole, general sales manager of the Hupp Motor Car Corporation, said he believed the two-car family to be the largest factor due to the increasing desire for a car for every member of the family.

1928 Oakland advertisement

As director of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, Walter P. Chrysler stated that the increase in the number of owners of two or more cars represented “an advance in American standards.” He added that, “Many of our newer communities have been constructed on the premise that every adult will have his own car. In some of our best suburbs it is essential that each home has a multiple-car garage.  The two-car families are increasing.”

1928 Chrysler advertisement

It was in the best interest of any that benefited from the manufacture and sale of automobiles to encourage families to purchase multiple cars, and the Detroit Free Press weighed in with a series of nine advertisements published “in the interest of the motor car builder, retailer and used car dealer.” They appeared from April through July of 1928, and reveal much about everyday life at that time. As seen below, they are also just really enjoyable pieces of propaganda:

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“Repurposing” Car Parts

I started this post a couple of days ago and was going to begin by saying that, if your experience is anything like mine, you hear one question over and over when out buying car parts: “What are you going to make with that?” Well, it happened again this past weekend.

We attended the 42nd Annual Old Trusty Antique & Collectors Show in Clay Center, Nebraska, which includes a flea market. We were happy to find many desirable hubcaps that required multiple trips to the truck with arms full:

Starting at the top left and moving clockwise: Three Oldsmobile Fiesta-style tri-bar checkerboard aftermarket caps; a 73-87 Chevy 3/4-ton 12-inch dog dish; 1930 Buick wire wheel hubcap; 30-32 Chevy wire wheel hubcap set of four plus one aftermarket version with the dash in place of the bowtie; and three 64-66 Chevy truck hubcaps (one clip and two nub-style.

At one point a woman approached me to ask what I was doing with all those hubcaps. She said she was worried that she was missing out on some great new craft idea and seemed more than a little disappointed when I answered that I was going to sell them to people who needed them. . . for hubcaps. We never want to see car parts sent to the crusher but also aren’t crazy about perfectly good parts being used to make another clock or yard-art gizmo. Vintage and antique car parts have historical value, and we vastly prefer to get them into the hands of the restorers that need them to maintain the authenticity of their projects.

That being said, we do understand the love for old cars and their various sculptural parts, as well as the enjoyment that comes with surrounding yourself with them where you live. The internet is brimming with ideas for repurposing vintage car parts, but many of those ideas involve the partial, or total, destruction of the parts being used. If you are a person who likes to immerse yourself in the classic car aesthetic, here are some ideas for adding car parts to your decor while maintaining the integrity of the parts for future use:

These old Motorola radios have vibrant colors and a great vintage look, and here they were just piled up to make a small table or stand:

This vintage headlight bezel with chrome trim has been made into a mirror for a car-themed bathroom by sticking a round piece of glass into place with silicone. This bezel is from a 1956 Ford and has the original “buckskin tan” paint.

You can’t go wrong with a wall of hubcaps. From top to bottom, this one features Pontiac, Hudson Terraplane, Chevy, Nash Lafayette, Oldsmobile, and Ford dog dishes.

Emblem letters that are the stick-on type, or ones that are missing their mounting posts, can be made into magnets like these that spell “RAT ROD.”

Everyone loves a beautiful hood ornament, and a good way to display them is on chunks of wood with holes drilled into them to accommodate any mounting bolts still on the ornaments. They look so much better on a shelf than another made-in-China-by-slave-labor knick-knack.

Clockwise, from the top: a Brockway husky, a George Petty-designed Nash flying lady, and a Chevrolet golden gazelle accessory hood ornament.

This photo features a small cloche made with a sediment bowl. The glass bowl has only been modified with a wood craft piece stuck to the closed end with silicone. It sits on a base which is also made of wood.

Finally, if you embraced the galvanized metal trend and used it as wall covering or to encase a bar, it makes a great place to display old license plates with magnets. No nail holes required!

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The Story Behind the Shell Oil License Plate Topper

This vintage license plate topper is fairly common, but so is confusion over its backstory. It was part of a program to eliminate unsafe and discourteous driving, and it was in the shape of a shell because it was sponsored by Shell Oil Company.

The program originated in the 1930s and was called the Share-the-Road Club. Its aim was to get rid of “Screwdrivers,” people whose bad driving habits and lack of courtesy caused traffic delays and stop-and-go driving. When drivers joined the club, they were presented with one of these license plate toppers. The shell was painted gold, but most of the gold has worn off the one in the photo. The three flags draped over the shell are nautical flags that, in maritime code, mean, “I am giving way.”

You can see the topper in this photo published in a 1939 newspaper. The man standing is a Shell Oil representative, and he is explaining the program to Lou Boedecker of the Montana State Highway Patrol.

It was free to join the club, and five million drivers had signed up by the first quarter of 1940. That explains why there are still so many of these shell-shaped toppers around!

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The Meridian Highway Bridge

As the number of automobile owners increased during the early 1900s, so did demand for better roads. One of the major north-south routes was the Meridian Highway which crossed the Great Plains from Winnipeg, Canada, to Mexico City, Mexico. Now it is known as US 81, but back then it was nicknamed the “Main Street of North America.” The Meridian Highway took its name from the Sixth Principal Meridian which it roughly paralleled, and at one time was reported to be the longest international highway in the world.  The last section of the highway to be completed was the Meridian Highway Bridge at Yankton, South Dakota, which spans the great Missouri River between that state and Nebraska. This historic bridge is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

This map was part of an ad in an Oklahoma newspaper advocating for the paving of roads in Kingfisher County.

Prior to the construction of the Meridian Highway Bridge, those needing to cross the river at Yankton had to use a ferry service or a seasonal pontoon bridge. For this reason, talk of a bridge project was nothing new when a group of Yankton businessmen renewed the discussion in 1919. They began raising local capital and holding meetings, and as often happens, some turned heated. At one meeting in particular, “boxing gloves were resorted to in a successful effort to relieve ill feeling and restore the sanity and good nature of the bridge sponsors.”

The group founded The Meridian Highway Bridge Company and commenced a campaign to sell stock. An engineer was hired, and the first dirt was thrown in February of 1921. The company adopted a policy of paying bills in full every Saturday and continued this practice until the end. In 1923, $300,000 in bonds were issued to finish the project which had a total cost of $1,250,000. It was truly a local project since eighty-five percent of the capital was raised from a population of 20,000 people living within twenty miles of the bridge.

The bridge was said to be a lucky one as there were no serious accidents or injuries in the building of it. This fortunate bridge was also a double-decker with thirty-four feet nine inches between the lower and upper decks. It was designed for vehicular traffic on the upper level and for trains on the lower level, although it never actually saw any use by trains. The bridge proper was 1,668 feet long, and the total length including approaches was 5,863 feet. It was constructed with eight piers of reinforced concrete with steel on the upper river side. The piers measured sixteen by fifty-eight feet at the base, and the height of the piers mid-steam was sixty-eight feet six inches, with thirty-five feet below the bed of the river. A total of 30,000 pounds of steel was used.

 It had a lift mechanism that allowed river traffic to pass below. The distance between the lifting span piers was 250 feet and designed so that the lifting span could be placed between any two piers in case the river changed course. The span weighed 800 tons and was able to be lifted twenty-seven feet using counterweights and a 20-hp gasoline motor.

The project put one man out of business, ferry operator Captain Joseph Geisler, but he apparently wasn’t too broken up about it as he was also a stockholder in the bridge company. He had been operating a steamboat on the Missouri since 1880 and was likely quite tired of it.

The Meridian was a toll bridge, and this was the schedule of tolls when the bridge opened in 1924:

The completion of the bridge was celebrated with a week of great pageantry. There were parades, floats, fireworks, football games, and rodeos, and a tent city with 1,000 shelters had to be constructed to accommodate all of the travelers coming from other states and countries. The town of Wausa, Nebraska, population 400, recruited residents from the entire county so it could send a delegation numbering 800. Both Canada and Mexico sent delegations to christen the bridge with bottles of water brought from their respective countries to mingle with the water of the Missouri. The Sioux sent a representative from the Rosebud Reservation to meet and clasp hands with a Yankton representative in the middle of the bridge. Dirt from every county in South Dakota and Nebraska was mixed in jars and also tossed into the river. There was even a wedding held in the center of the bridge. A crowd of 20,000 people was on-hand to witness the actual bridge dedication on October 17, 2024.

The city of Yankton took over ownership in 1946. After recouping the $700,000 purchase price through tolls, toll collection ended in 1953. The first car to drive across the toll-free bridge was reported to be a 1913 Model T “showpiece” driven by a city commissioner; unfortunately, no paper saw fit to publish a picture of the classic Ford. The two decks were converted to one-way vehicular traffic, one going north and one going south. The lift mechanism was later removed.

Today, a new bridge has been constructed for vehicular traffic crossing the Missouri at Yankton. The one-hundred-year-old Meridian Highway Bridge is now used for recreational purposes, and that upper deck still affords one beautiful view of the Missouri River.

View of the new bridge from the top level of the Meridian Highway Bridge
Lower level of the bridge facing south
Plaque that stands near the bridge today.
Bicyclists using the historic bridge.
Upper level of the Meridian Highway Bridge.

Sources:

“Ceremonies Mark End of 29-Year Fees.” The Daily Argus Leader [Sioux Falls], 1 Dec 1953, p.1

“Great Crowd Sees Bridge Dedicated.” Norfolk Daily News, 17 Oct. 1924, p. 2.

“If We Wait – What?” The Hennessey Clipper, 30 Oct 1924, p. 4.

“New Meridian Highway Bridge.” Free Press Evening Bulletin [Winnipeg], 18 Oct 1924, p. 29.

“Wedding on New Yankton Bridge.” Polk County Democrat, 23 Oct. 1924, p. 6.

“Week of Celebration to Mark Opening Meridian Highway Bridge at Yankton.” The Lincoln Star, 3 Oct 1924, p. 6.

“Week’s Celebration to Mark Opening Yankton Bridge.” The Daily Argus Leader [Sioux Falls], 11 Oct 1924, p. 5.

“Yankton Toll House Vacant; Bridge Clear.” The North Platte Telegraph Bulletin, 2 Dec 1953, p. 2.